The Beginnings of Change
Posted at 5:00 AM on September 10, 2009
by Dale Connelly
(20 Comments)
Radio Heartland has a chance for you to win a pair of tickets to see the legendary Ralph Stanley and his Clinch Mountain Boys at the Cedar Cultural Center this Friday night!
We'll take names until 1pm this afternoon.
Enter the drawing here. Obey the rules. Good luck!
So what's this about the beginnings of change? Health care again?
No! It's about Fall.
Here we are not even a week past Labor Day and things are starting to shift towards autumn color. At least they are out by my mailbox, where one hasty tree always starts to turn yellow as soon as September hits. I've seen this before. Every leaf will be on the ground before the Twins are eliminated from playoff contention. That's how fast it is!
It makes me think of those guys in British comedies who will take off their clothes at the slightest suggestion that public nakedness is somehow appropriate, even though it never is. Certainly not for them, anyway. But that doesn't seem to be a deterrent as their knickers quickly hit the ground and we see what holds up their socks.
For this tree, the leaves are clearly a burden, and they must go ASAP.
The Minnesota DNR runs a great website tracking autumn color all a round the region. Take a look. You can get a good idea of how things are going day by day. Click on one of the State Park locations and you'll find an update not only for tree colors, but for flowers and grass too! And there are pictures!
The seasonal change is a bit like the weather - everyone experiences it differently based on their location and level of personal awareness. Some oblivioius people don't notice autumnal changes in the landscape until they are standing in a snowdrift with frozen extremities. For others, each yellowed leaf hits the ground with an ominious thunderclap.
Has Fall started to happen near you?
Comments (20)
Good morning, Dale, Mike and All -
yes, in beautful Blackhoof twp. there are many signs of the season already. lots of maples flushing that deep red; the melon and cuke vines have just decided to yellow and die; the apples are ripening quickly and mornings are misty and cool. but even if we were ignorant of all of those signs, we live with seasonal breeders. Alpines (and other Swiss goats) breed when the days shorten and cool. about two weeks ago Majority's reproductive system awakened and he started exhibiting the "flehman reflex" when around the Girls and he began to emit a scent that attracts the ladies. he went from giving off a light whiff to a "high heaven" level in the last 10 days- from a whisper of promise to the Girls to a loud, deep-throated bleat of unbridled lust. it's Fall here in Blackhoof.
First, I must thank Dale and Mike for the drawing for free tickets to Crooked Still at the Cedar last night. The music was just incredible - I had goosebumps from the first song, on. It was a fantastic night, and I'm so glad Radio Heartland gave me, and Kathy, a chance to hear Crooked Still. Thank you so much!
Since we were there at the Cedar, we purchased tickets for the Cliff Eberhardt concert on November 29. Can't wait to hear him in person.
Eva Cassidy just gave me goosebumps, again, with her Autumn Leaves. A great selection (smile). On Monday morning, I heard an unidentifiable sound outside, and when I looked out my front window, there were leaves skittering along the road. There are a few orangey-red trees in the neighborhood, and my elm has started dropping early yellow leaves. Time to start cleaning up the veggie garden and getting it ready for next spring.
Again, thanks for the tickets to Crooked Still - RH listeners should take advantage of these terrific giveaway opportunities!
Good morning,
Last weekend, on my long run, I saw many trees whose leaves were beginning to turn colors. The wind has noticeably changed... so too the sound of it passing through the leaves of the trees.
If you have any Elmore James in the library, I'd love to hear some, please!
No,no. The change of seasons is not due in Zimmerman for quite a while yet; after all, it is only Aug 41st.
Barb pretty well described what's happening in Mahtowa township just west of Blackhoof township. Apples weighing down the tree in front of my house. I don't, however, have the added attraction of a buck goat...and, I must say, not sorry about that. I have had buck goats visit in the past and, well, always pleased when they returned to their proper homes.
I listened to Bok, Muir and Trickett singing "Turning towards the morning" yesterday on my way to work...I always associate that song with fall and the changes to come. Never hear it enough if you feel like sharing with Radio Heartland, Dale and Mike. Or, is that rushing it...stay in the moment of my favorite season, should I?
Gorgeous day again...happy Thursday all.
Thanks for the Elmore James!
Greetings! I've definitely noticed some changing of leaves around this area -- just surprised how early it seems -- whether it is or not I don't know.
My zucchini stopped producing a week or so ago and looks to have died. The tomatoes are still vigorously growing and ripening, but seem to have begun to tire.
Anybody see Obama's speech last night? I missed the beginning, so I don't know if he told a joke. Great speech -- especially the ending bit in honor of Senator Ted Kennedy -- I was in tears.
My favorite sign of fall - the changing colors of our maple tree in the front yard - is no longer with us. The tree succumbed to some sort of disease, so now I have a stump to look at. Not quite as lovely. In the spirit of "The Giving Tree" we will be turning the stump into a bird bath.
Other sign of fall is the change in the air - that crisp autumn feel of the wind and the morning air. It's teased me a few times while I wait with Daughter for the school bus. I'm sure it will be with us in earnest soon.
My trip through western Minnesota this weekend revealed lots of soybean fields turning yellow and streaks of red in the underbrush.
Will anybody from RH be at Target Center to offer jokes to our president?
Beth-Ann -- I am so out out of it .... is President Obama coming to our lovely state soon?
Some of us, apparently Teri included, don't want fall to come too quickly because it has been a cooler than normal summer or maybe we just like summer. I like fall, but I want more warm days to ripen the tomatoes and melons in my garden that are late due to the cool summer.
As much as I would like warm summer weather to continue, I'm afraid I do see signs of fall. Sumacs and Virginia Creeper vines are turning red and the Canadian Geese are starting practice their flying formations for going South.
I will not be able to come to the show at the Cedar on Sunday because I will be on vacation, I would like to be there because it seems like a perfect combination to me, Dale, The Cedar, and good local music.
Joanne -
Yes, President Obama is coming to the Target Center for a speech / Rally on Saturday.
I hear it's a first come - first served event.
LOL, Teri, at your August 41.
Your question, Dale, prompted an early morning walk around the environs and a spontaneous "pre-fall" clean-up. Milkweeds are a glorious gold, the asters are out, and the peonies have that rusty burgundy tinge. Sadly, the HUGE and ancient box elder in midst of back yard is losing another limb. Sigh.
And the Autumn Flame oak planted 2 years ago in memory of our son Joel (1981-2007) is truly in flame, has been reddish since July -- drought stress for a young tree?.
We can always tell that fall is on the way when the birds start to flock in the treas and the school children start to flock on the street corners. This usually starts in mid-August, and is always a clear sign that summer is ending. We also have a wonderful wheat harvest this year, and the fields are brilliant gold.
...and of course I forgot to mention that there are herds of squirrels on in the back yard, with a few chipmunks.
For three weeks now I have seen the wild geese flying overhead here in Sioux Falls. I assume they know what is happening way up North and what is coming our way. The crickets tried to get in all the doorways last week. My ash trees are letting go of some yellow leaves already, so are the Cherry trees out front. Flies are beginning to act in that demented, annoying pre-winter manner. And, most telling of all, I am getting itchy to head up to Lutsen and climb Catlton Peak, just to see what I can see.
Believe it or not, I'm actually a seasonal change gauge myself.
You have to understand that I'm not exactly a purveyor of fashion. I prefer to amortize the clothes that I buy, depreciating them over so many years that I actually make money (at least from a financial figures standpoint) on them. I always say that I prefer to let fashion catch up to me...which means that the popular fashion harmonic hits me for about 10 minutes every 10-12 years.
My wardrobe consists almost exclusively of polo shirts and turtlenecks. Which makes things very simple...cool shirts for warm weather, warm shirts for cool weather. But I've done this for so many years now that I have friends and co-workers that actually use what I wear as a measure of where we are in the seasons. You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows...just look at what I'm wearing...
TGITH - I understand about the fashion harmonic hitting every decade or so. Husband isn't as methodical as you are, but he still wears stuff from his teaching days in late 60s (and doesn't understand how people can tell it's from then).
Dale and Mike -- don't know if there's a way to compliment Jasper, but he/she/it just did a particularly stellar hour of programming. :)
Hard to top Wallace Steven's "Metamorphosis" for the phenomenon of fall, (unless it be with another Stevens poem, "the Dwarf.") Here's the first poem.
Yillow, yillow, yillow,
Old worm, my pretty quick,
How the wind spells out Sep - tem - ber...
Summer is in bones.
Cock-robin's at Caracas.
Make o, make o, make o,
Oto - otu- bre.
And the rude leaves fall.
The rain falls. The sky
Falls and lies with the worms.
The street lamps
Are those that have been hanged,
Dangling in an illogical
To and to and fro
Fro Niz - nil -imbo.
I doubt robins migrate as far as Venezuela (many hang around, especially last year, it seemed) but I love that disintegration of the spelling of the months in the last line of each stanza, as if the cold freezes up even our language, into nil; we end up in limbo, waiting for spring.
not much happening here in bloomington with the trees yet, but the vegetable garden is indeed slowing down (not as much light, more shadows)
Obama's speech was great, i want him to get angry, be a "bully", it's his job and why he got elected
love to go see him but i can't handle the traffic
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