Equal light and darkness: The first day of autumn
September continues to be a great weather month. The heat and humidity have dissipated and we continue to see a lot of sunny pleasant days and nice cool mornings.
In the woods, the mixture of sunshine and shade produces a beautiful pattern of dappled light that dances whenever there is a bit of a breeze. Along our biking or hiking trails this display of light is truly spectacular at this time of the year and makes me realize how beautiful Southwestern Pennsylvania is.
Wooded hillsides along these trails are now covered with yellow and orange touch me not蘑菇视频 and white bone set. Open areas are aglow with yellow golden rod, sneeze weed and black-eyed susans. The blue and purple wild asters are also making a show of color. Here and there, a few leaves are beginning to color and fall to the ground; and Mother Nature is gearing up for the big color show which will begin in October.
Also in October, we usually see our first frost and this usually puts an end to the growing season across Southwestern Pennsylvania. In the mountains, the first frost usually occurs in early October.
Areas outside of Uniontown see frost around the middle of October and the warmer city areas usually hold off until the end of the month. Some years, we can get well into November before we have a hard killing frost, other years it can come as early as late September
September 22 is the Autumnal Equinox. This is the first day of fall when there is an equal amount of daylight and darkness. After that, it蘑菇视频 all downhill until December 21, the first day of winter when evening occurs around 4:30 p.m. and sunset is just before 5 pm.
It just seems like a few days ago spring was just beginning to unfold and already we are looking at fall. The shorter days add a bit of urgency to those chores from summer we have put off and soon we will be dealing with the falling leaves and what to do with them. Some just let the leaves fall and others get ready to do battle with the millions that seem to come down all too soon.
The nice fall weather is also a great time for the variety of festivals a perfect time to dig out that sweater and head outdoors.