The Days Wane, The Earth Cools, Life Slows Down

7:35

Another dreary morning, probably day, as the light rains continue, the sky stays gray, the lake is misty and wrinkled, though it has warmed up a bit, up to about 50 degrees, after the highs yesterday in the 40's.  I had forgotten about the autumn rains, how they are not wild and violent storms like in the summer, but days of gray, soft but consistent rains, the kind that seem to want to stay.  About the only thing I must do today is make my loaf of rye bread; other than that, perhaps take a walk, clean up my den, return some books and videos to the library, perhaps see a movie later if we feel like it.

Some interesting facts about October---as the earth cools, summer wanes, and we get ready for winter,  everything slows down, the ants moving 1/10 as fast as they might on a warm summer day, the crickets down to 40 notes a minute from the high of 140 in summer. The fires are ebbing in insect life,  and as the chill deepens, the frost will silence most all insects.  Perhaps that's why we have no lake flies to speak of, cooler, drier weather this fall. And of course, it's the beginning of the mass migration of birds, though it's hard to tell yet, as we see mostly herons, ducks, and Canadian geese, some seagulls, nothing that suggests a migration.  It will come when we notice the black and white bufflehead ducks arriving on the lake.