November 5: Just as the Saucer Magnolia at the end of the street is a harbinger of Spring (see May 9), this Maple in the north courtyard is clearly telling us that Winter is just around the corner. For reasons I don’t understand, it is the first of the large trees to get buds in the Spring, and the first to go scarlet and begin to drop leaves in the Fall. Today it is completely devoid of leaves.
Perhaps because I was a summer baby born in July, I am not a huge fan of the colder seasons. As a Canadian, I understand that Winter is a fact of life. But I view it as something to be tolerated and complained about, rather than celebrated and enjoyed more fully. So it is that Autumn feels like the “end of the year” to me.
Spring and Summer are full of promise and vitality. We become more active and spend more time outdoors recreating or enjoying meals on the patio with food made from produce straight out of the ground. The world is alive. People travel more, enjoy vacations and time with friends. Days are warm, nights are fresh. Autumn is clearly the threshold between these warm and sunny days of summer and the colder, grey days of Winter. There is a finality to it – the falling leaves are as inevitable as the falling temperatures. There is no escape.
This time of year feels like it should be celebrated in some way that marks it as a special moment of transition between the heat of summer and the cold of Winter yet to come – the end of one year and the beginning of another. I think the Pilgrims were on the right track when they decided that they needed to celebrate their survival for another year and created Thanksgiving.
On the other hand, we celebrate our “year end” on New Year’s Day which falls smack in the middle of Winter when poorer weather is fully entrenched. There’s little hope that the date will mark a change to better weather (although it frequently gets worse …). New Year’s feels like an artificial holiday that was manufactured to keep greeting card companies and liquor stores in business after the cash-register season around Christmas. ( In fact, the same could be said for many of our holidays: I’m looking at you Halloween and Valentine’s Day. )
So perhaps we should enjoy and celebrate the good weather and colourful trees while we have them. They mark a passage to a much darker ( literally and figuratively ) time of year.
November 11: And, as if on cue:
