Hello, autumn, or.... it was a short summer

Autumnal equinox rides in tonight

Mon, 09/22/2014 - 3:45pm

    So long, Summer 2014. It started late and wet, but gifted us with a few beautiful days of hot weather, mixed with plenty of sunshine to get the gardens growing. While the rest of the country baked, few in Maine were complaining about the balmy breezes and pleasantly cool nights, especially following such a harsh winter. Once we got acclimated to the warmth that began to arrive in May, our bones relaxed.

    But, if we didn't like meteorological change, we wouldn't be living in Maine, the land of rapidly shifting air masses and sometimes very weird weather. So out with summer, and in with autumn!

    "Come said the wind to
    the leaves one day,
    Come o're the meadows
    and we will play.
    Put on your dresses
    scarlet and gold,
    For summer is gone
    and the days grow cold."
          -  A Children's Song of the 1880s

    At 10:29 p.m., Sept. 22, Eastern Standard Time, Fall 2014 will officially be ushered in by the autumnal equinox, that celestial instance when day and night are of equal length (equinox, from Latin, means equal night). The autumnal equinox occurs when the sun's movement crosses the celestial equator moving from north to south.

    From the website EarthSky: "Because Earth doesn’t orbit upright, but is instead tilted on its axis by 23-and-a-half degrees, earth’s northern and southern hemispheres trade places in receiving the sun’s light and warmth most directly. We have an equinox twice a year – spring and fall – when the tilt of the earth’s axis and earth’s orbit around the sun combine in such a way that the axis is inclined neither away from nor toward the sun."

    The equinox is the great equalizer. It is the time, twice in a year, when just about everywhere on earth is privy to 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night. Now, the days will get shorter and shorter, until late December, when we will be putting our lights on at 3:30 p.m. and rising in the dark morning to greet the day. A far cry from those short, sweet nights of June, when the last glimpse of daylight was visible until 10 p.m. and the birds were signing at 4 a.m. — if not all night long.

    Here we go, though. Time to stack the wood, bank the house, pull sweaters out of the drawers and harvest the garden. For many, it is the favorite time of year. One thing is certain: it won't last, but it will return.