In
case you didn’t notice, it’s officially October.
We’re
halfway through the first moon of autumn, the Ducks Fly Moon.
Beware,
citybillies. This moon is a game changer.
According
to the farmer’s almanac, at the beginning of this moon, the length of daylight
is a little bit over twelve hours long. Here in the middle of the moon, a
day spans about eleven hours, thirty minutes long…and by the end, the sun will
rise at 7:30am and set at 6:15pm, a mere ten hours, forty five minutes of
precious, cold, cloudy daylight.
From
here on out, the moon dominates the twenty-four hours…these drizzly days of
October.
Looking
at the almanac’s chart of sunrises and sunsets, we are losing one minute of sunlight
per day every morning…and sometimes two minutes of sunlight every evening …the
two bookends of night are slowly, mechanically closing in…no escape from
October.
Take
heed, citybillies. This drastic change of daylight, these falling
temperatures, these days turning into nights …this moon is a trigger.
It
sets things in motion.
Out
there…beyond the frosted pane…beyond the cozy confines of a warm blanket and a
hot cup of cider…things are changing...things are moving just as fast as the
day is retreating…spiders are crawling into the warm home, hiding in the
basement, nesting under the bed…snakebite cases skyrocket…and in the kingdom of
Plantae?
Things
reverse. The growing season stops…the kilter comes off…plants and trees
now spend all their energy undressing for the winter. They’re battening
down the hatches. You can notice it first in the colors. Greens
turn to reds and oranges, russets and yellows.
Well…not
exactly.
The
trees aren’t changing colors, really. More precisely, they are losing
colors. Well, to be exact, they are losing one color…green.
Here’s
what’s happening.
