9/02/11 THE SUN ON ITS TIMELESS ROUNDS

SUGAR MAPLE TREE HEAVY WITH SEED

MAPLE WINGED SEED

Thursday,7:00 AM.  64 degrees, wind SW, light.  The sky is somewhat overcast and the barometer still predicts rain, which we got bout .5” of the last two nights, enough that I don’t have to water the lawn.
    Signs of summer waning are eveerwhere now.  I picked our first ripe tomato yesterday and soon there will be more.The sugar maple trees are shedding their two-winged nutlets, called samaras, as are the hedge maples.
    A few sumac leaves are turning blood red and soon whole hillsides will be carmine.
    The first apples, notably the transparents, are being sold in the orchards.
    And, the word on the street (actually neighborhood decks) is that the male hummingbirds have left for winter habitat, and the females and  youngsters will be leaving by mid-September.
    And so our Bayfield seasons are marked; not so much by temperature as by the progression of the sun on its timeless rounds.