The game of winter should be on for real by now, but we keep getting enjoyably warm teases. November is usually cold (hence the Frost Moon) and the time when we get our first snow in Waghkonk. The black bears, chipmunks and woodchucks should be denning up for the winter, not to be seen again until spring, but since the forecast for this month looks mild, they all may not go down ‘til December. Turtles normally would be long-buried in the mud, dreaming Turtle-dreams and Woodfrogs fast-frozen under the leaf-litter, many of them close to ancestral woodland- or vernal-pools, awaiting a spring thaw. The Anishnaabe (Chippewa, Ojibwe) call this (aptly) the Freezing Moon. To my Abenaki ancestors it is the Freezing River Maker Moon and to many other Algonquins this is the Beaver- or Frost Moon. To our local Munsee this is called the First Snow Moon.
As the cold north winds whip little leaf-devils, sweeping dried leaves skittering into corners, they also brush aside our last vestiges of summer past, reducing it to fading memories of warm light and life. It definitely feels more and more like the winter that was “just around the corner.” Usually, we get to work our way more gradually into the cold season, getting used to the idea of what is ahead. Imagine the disaster if there was no fall, if summer went directly to winter — what a shock that would be! Thank goodness for fall. Some years we have Indian summer — a usually short period of warming after the first hard frost.
Kaleidoscope fall — As the kaleidoscope of our fall season inexorably turns, the once-bright autumnal hues, which only recently seemed stunningly immutable and starkly in-our-face, have changed their tune. Now they speak to us in more muted, darker tones of faded yellow and orange, rich browns and disintegrating greens. I’m almost afraid of what they are trying to say. I think it’s something like “winter is coming! Get used to somber shades, people!” For that’s what is upon us now and it seems that late fall is the visual practice-palette for the more subtle shades of winter, which is rapidly approaching.
A muted rainbow — Our fall continues to wind down, most leaves have colored and fallen. A few stubborn “hangers-on” (so to speak) don’t seem to want to leave branch and limb. We’ve gone from the peak of the season — when not only the trees seemed to represent the full spectrum, but we also had every type of creature persisting in their presence — birds, insects, mammal — large and small — a full species-spectrum, as it were. The temperatures locally have definitely been seasonable — alternating cool and warm — with some early frost locally, as well as several very warm days. At times, there is a steady breeze blowing, parting leaf from branch, creating a distinctive, crisp, (coincidentally) fall-like wind-chill. Myself, I wouldn’t dare guess what our future holds for us weather-wise — there are so many variables. I admit I might not be open-minded on the matter and may be hoping for a mild winter for my own reasons (hiking, working outdoors). I know the reality is that the winter’s going to do whatever it wants to and we’ll either adapt or go south. Hmm, there’s an idea — be a snow-bird. Nah, been there, done that. The truth is I always end up adapting to our beautiful winter of muted grays and browns — the season of (mostly) subtle colors. After a childhood in Labrador and Maine, both of which have much longer winters (at least compared to us), ice not leaving lakes until May, I still — and will always — appreciate our generally equal-length, three-month-long seasons. One thing that is interesting about writing these articles is that sometimes it can take me a week or so to pen them and, in progressively changeable, dynamic periods like fall or spring, everything I’m writing about can change, sometimes drastically, from when I start a Waghkonk Note to when I finish it.
Thank you all. Please stay warm and safe — “Ranger” Dave Holden | 845-594-4863 | woodstocktrails@gmail.com / Dave Holden on Facebook / rangerdaveholden on Instagram / www.woodstocknytrails.com.
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