Monday Musings

The nights are progressively cooler; a quilt feels cuddly. Indian summer lies ahead, but for the moment, we are on the cusp of fall, the precipice of winter. The garden has waned. The beans no longer produce green and golden pods; a couple of small cucumbers struggle, and the Sugar Baby Watermelon vines promise only a few more sweet treats. Dill and marigolds still brighten the raised beds filled with withering plants. We’ve enjoyed a prolific zucchini and summer squash crop this summer. A neighbor shared a delicious Summer Squash Gingerbread Loaf recipe. I cheated a bit by blending in both summer squash and zucchini, but the results were tasty, if not foreboding, of the pumpkin spice onslaught ahead. Mums dot the yard with their colorful buttons. As the landscape outside begins to brown, I’ve brought more cheer inside with a bouquet of stunning dahlias from the farmers’ market. True fall is less than two weeks away, on September 22, the 2024 Autumnal Equinox. While it seems I just set...

The Fall equinox occurred on September 23rd at 02:50 AM EDT (in the Northern Hemisphere); it is now officially Autumn. On a drive through the North Carolina mountain towns of Boone and Blowing Rock last weekend, we noticed the faint beginnings of leaf color change: the brush of red on non-indigenous maple tree plantings, a scattered tinge of yellow.  Peak leaf season is predicted to be during the second and third weeks in the Appalachian mountains, but optimal dates for leaf viewing vary across the nation. The  2023 Fall Foliage Prediction Map  lets you see the best dates for your location. The site also gives a brief scientific refresher on how leaves change colors from summer green to vibrant reds, oranges, and yellows. As a gardener, I am intimately connected with the seasons. This is the time when harvests are nearly complete: I dug up Yukon Gold potatoes yesterday, the tomato plants are producing their final fruits, and I’ve begun the fall garden cleanup in preparati...

Tonight, September 20th, at 7:54 Eastern Time, the moon will reach peak illumination. You can observe the moon ascend soon after sunset in the southeastern sky. The Harvest Moon is the full Moon in the Northern Hemisphere that occurs nearest to the fall equinox (two weeks before or two weeks after). This year the fall equinox takes place on September 23rd. Most years, this will happen in September, except every three years, it will occur in October. The timing depends on how the  astronomical  calendar correlates with the  lunar cycle . Why is thi s  specific full Moon called the Harvest Moon? The name originated in European and Chinese cultures and with Native American and Colonial American peoples. Usually, the full moon rises around sunset and then 50 minutes later each day. However, near the autumnal equinox, it rises during twilight and only 20 to 25 minutes later daily (10 to 20 minutes later in latitudes farther north) for several days before and after the ful...