Just a Bit Fallish 9/26/2021

By: Jennifer Richardson Holt

If you’ve read my blog at all you know how I feel about autumn. If you ask my husband, when this time of year rolls around I write about the season entirely too much.  I can’t help it though! Everything about this time of year aches to be written about.  He could be correct though that maybe I am dangerously close to redundancy.  But you should write about the things you are passionate about I think. I mean if people have really strong emotions about a topic they talk about it a great deal so if they write then it would seem to make sense that they would do the same.  I absolutely adore autumn. It is my favorite season and I cannot seem to even list all the reasons and hence, I write about it. I write about it probably more than I should.  This is the second blog that I have discussed my husband being right.  This is a bit of a disconcerting trend.  But while I am at it, I may as well prove him excessively correct and, you guessed it dear reader, write a bit more about autumn. I mean this is the first time this year so perhaps it’s not that bad.  And I don’t intend to just gush on and on about my love for the season like I have done repeatedly in the past. I want to just reminisce a bit about specific memories that I have of fall and things that are attached to my memories of this wonderful time of year. Hopefully you will humor me as I do so.

There is one aspect of fall that happens every year. It is a fleeting event.  It is such a brief occurrence in fact that every year I forget that it exists until it happens.  The occasion of which I speak is the appearance of a certain flower. Now, I grew up knowing them as surprise lilies.  I learned that name for them from my mother and she got the moniker from hers.  I suppose it is fitting considering what I just said about them, their appearance is obviously, quite the surprise. If you do not have the pleasure of this happening in your locality let me paint a picture for you. Just one random day in the early fall, suddenly there are these stems just scattered about with what appears to be red botanical fireworks on the tops of them.  There are no leaves. There is no plant at their base that gives you warning that a little burst of color on a stalk is about to emerge. Just one day, there they are.  Now, many people call them spider lilies and I can see this considering they have some minimal resemblance with their slender tendrils radiating from the center of the blossom. However, I don’t like spiders. Also, I love my mother and my grandmother.  I like flowers and these surprise me every year. Hence, I shall call them surprise lilies and my reasons for doing so seem very sound in my own eyes.

Another fond autumnal memory that I have is that of yellow butterflies.  I do not know what type of butterfly they are but you see them at two times of year. Once in the spring and then again in the fall. Now I would surmise this is some sort of migration scenario as to why I see them at these two points in time.  Again, my mom seems to play a major role in my marking of the appearance of the little yellow butterflies.  It always meant spring was upon us or fall was upon us.  They were rather reliable in their seasonal predictions too.  I always looked for them more in the fall because I liked the end of dreadful heat and humidity. She looked for them more as a portent telling the end of the bleak winter since, unlike my daughter’s favorite Disney character, the cold does bother her and it bothers her very much. So my mother and I looked for these little fluttering fortune-tellers for entirely different reasons but we both loved to see them, even if it was at different times.  I always associate them with fall though as yet another passed down seasonal moment.

Just this week I have noticed that the deer are making far more appearances. I don’t know why they choose this time of year to be so much more out and about when their visibility is becoming so much more dangerous but, if you are familiar with deer, they don’t always seem to make decisions based on logic and common sense. I did see an odd group on my property early one morning a few days ago. There was a buck and two does, enjoying my bountiful harvest of muscadines scattered around the surrounding woods.  The interesting thing about them was that one doe was wearing her bright reddish coat that you see mid-summer while the other doe and buck had on their grey winter ensembles.  I did a double and triple take to be sure I wasn’t having momentary color blindness.  But no, there they were, two greys and a red.  It makes me wonder if there is a schedule in which deer change out their closets for the seasons and poor first doe didn’t get the memo as to the dates.  It was an interesting mix to see the equivalent of a swimsuit and two snow suits side by side.  Considering the weather here does flip flop between the two temperature extremes I suppose maybe these creatures just had to make a judgement call on appropriate attire.  I suppose we all do quite frankly with our jackets in the morning and shorts in the afternoon.  We’re all just getting by really.

So, hopefully I haven’t just rambled about colorful leaves, azure skies and my fall love affair.  I tried to not do my annual love letter to the season.  Though, I must warn all of you, and my husband as well, I make no promises that there won’t be some declarations of heartfelt affection to the season in future blogs.  When you love something, you have a lot to say about it and when it comes to autumn, I could go on for all the other three seasons. So, if you see me going off again on leafy, cool weather tangents just nod your head and smile.  I do the same about Christmas and my daughter.  I could do it about my cat or the Smoky Mountains. I could, and probably do, do the same thing about old things and good stories. So, when you see such, if you’re inclined, just read on. It’s just your casual blogger waxing poetic yet again about something she loves.