Fall Equinox 2010

Greetings of the Autumn Equinox

Welcome second harvest! It is the time when day and night are equal. I have noticed the shorter days as the sunset arrives earlier each passing day. Here in Florida, we don't usually have a change in seasons. This year I have been paying close attention and I have noticed subtle changes.

We have two ginkgo trees and recently their leaves have changed to a brilliant gold. Their leaves are beautiful when they change colors. This reminds me of a book for children called Ginkgo and the Moon by Lisa Mertins. The story is about a ginkgo tree in love with the moon. The moon is always chasing the sun and doesn’t see the ginkgo tree. The ginkgo tree tries to get the moons attention by having butterflies in its leaves but at night the moon couldn’t see them. The ginkgo tries again with lightning bugs in the leaves. The moon stops briefly to watch the lights and this angers the sun. The sun then sends a strong wind to blow all the leaves off the ginkgo tree. Saddened by the act, the moon makes sure that every autumn the leaves on the ginkgo tree change to gold.

We miss the winter migration of waterfowl that we had every year on the Chesapeake Bay. Since we don’t have the migration as we did up north, we follow the Whooping Crane migration with Operation Migration (http://www.operationmigration.org/). This group has been bringing young cranes from Wisconsin to Florida and on September 18^th celebrated their tenth birthday. Last year the operation led 23 birds but this year there are only 13. As of August 21^st, the Eastern Migratory population stands at 96.

Enjoy the changing of the seasons as the wheel of the year turns again.

Blessings of the Season