FALL toward the AUTUMN Equinox September 8th 2021
Jill Lowe
“Do I detect Autumn”? That first notion is usually followed by the definite long shadows in the park in that golden hour just before sunset. Store windows have been giving us Autumn clothes since July 4th but now with some leaves turning, we think of Fall ideas: tweeds, hearty soups, beef bourguignon, sharpened pencils, school supplies, lighting the fire, afternoons reading as the days draw in. A popular time for cemetery tours where the foliage is displayed so gloriously. But some misgivings… can we extend our ever so brief Summer? Does the summer garden have to be put to bed yet? Can we squeeze some more time out of annuals? In this northern hemisphere, at the 42nd parallel, the Fall season in Chicago is a forerunner we know of bitter cold to come after Christmas and New Year’s holidays, but punctuated beforehand with Halloween and Thanksgiving.