Small Signs

This morning as I walked the neighborhood small signs were all around me, signs that fall is just around the corner.  First, the air was crisp and cool, something we didn't experience the last five weeks or so.  Second, the leaves of trees and bushes are no longer the intense emerald of summer but rather the deep, dark tones of green we see just before the leaves start to change to warm autumn shades.  The flower beds are another indicator.  Spring flowers are long gone.  The bleeding heart foliage that has hung around considerably longer than usual is now turning yellow.  Many summer flowers are past their prime, going to seed, with stalks turning stiff and brown.  I actually saw some sedum, an autumn flower, starting to turn tones of pink.

There are other signs, signs not needing a walk to be apparent.  Banners are up around town welcoming university students back.  Monday the public school administrators start working, their summer vacation ends.  Hummingbirds visit my flower garden regularly now bulking up for their long journey south.  The rose- breasted grosbeak that visits our feeder in the spring before heading farther north has already visited us on his way south.  Football players, both college and high school, are out practicing, getting ready for the opening game.

And perhaps the best sign that fall is on its way is our annual planning for the upcoming holidays.  Now we are making arrangements for family get-togethers at Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I love that the anticipation begins now and builds slowly through September, starts to speed up in October, and we ride the peak from Thanksgiving through New Years. 

The signs are there.  Small now but building even as I write this.