When September arrives in the Robson Valley, we can already feel the seasons slipping into autumn. It is obvious that the days are shortening. While it used to still be light at 9:00 PM when we wrapped up our Tuesday night jam session, last Tuesday when I lugged my guitar and mandolin out of the building, it was totally dark.
The sun doesn’t have the same intensity it did a month ago and in its path across the sky, it is not as high overhead and is instead is daily sagging lower to the south. All of the shadows are lengthening.
A few of the outer branches of the birch are starting to yellow, although most deciduous trees are still green. Yesterday morning as we walked along the dam of our pond, there was mist rising from the water indicating that the air was colder than the water temperature.
The squirrel is still bouncing spruce cones off of our roof, as it gathers its winter food cache. The branches that were full of berries along our trail are now bent down and stripped of their fruit, as the neighborhood bear does serious eating in preparation for its long hibernation. We have started to hear the honking of geese as they congregate and move from one field to another.
All the signs are there and cause us to consider all the things that have to be done. Joan has been canning tomatoes, and I have been freezing the beans. Yesterday I was up at the waterfall redirecting the flow and getting our waterline set for winter. I still have some firewood to split and stack, but I have enough now to get us through.
The forecast for BC is a warm fall, so hopefully we can continue to slowly ease toward those cold months of winter that lie ahead.
You can see my paintings at: www.davidmarchant.ca
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