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The Night of 12 Hours

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Today is the first day of autumn. While technically we have a little more daylight then night, we are now in the season of when they nights will grow longer then the days.

Today is the first day of fall. It’s also the first night of year when the night time equals or exceeds daylight. It seems rather strange after a summer of short nights and long days, to have the process reverse, but it’s a natural process, that man can not overcome.

I was setting up camp last night, and it really struck me how long the night time really was. I had to be camp by 7 PM, because it was already dark. The sun doesn’t rise until 6:30 or so now in the morning. It makes the evenings awful long with all their darkness, even if my campsite is well lit.

North Fork Mountain

Long winter nights are all part of nature’s cycle. New England ecosystems depend on those winter nights, to keep ecosystem healthy. Darkness is just part of the whole cycle of winter, and cold and snow it brings. But it sure seems like 7 PM is an awful early hour to get dark.

It will be even stranger when the time changes in November, when the days start after 6:40 AM and end a little after 4 PM. Winter certainly is dark in the northeast.

Evening Colors

Regardless, I guess the darkness doesn’t matter that much. Man has gotten good at lighting the way, so any darkness is offset by man’s artificial light. But it seems so strange returning to days when darkness exceeds light.

You Can’t Stop the Calender

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Enjoy the nice warm weather over the next few days, because before you know it, fall will be well underway.

The calender is a remarkable thing. It seems like things will never come to an end, until they come to an end. You climb and climb, and the hill always seems the steepest, until you reach the top, and then you realize your at the top, and rest of the way, you’ll be coasting down hill.

Trees Show Hints of Fall

It seemed like it would be forever until summer finally broke, but then it finally did. Then summer seemed endless, for such a precious short time, before succumbing to Labor Day, and then eventually the cooler weather of fall. Before you know, the leaves will fall, and winter will creep on. November will come and go, and Christmas will fade into 2014.

Sun Beams

The endless cold season will return until April, then in May spring will break, and by June it will be summer — even in the Adirondacks. And we will just continue to go around once again.

It will, in the words of Phil Ochs just be just part of the race around the stars.

Road Salt

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Many people don’t want a frigid winter, one when the mercury struggles to break 10 above. But I do.

Here’s why: the DOT uses a lot less salt when it’s very cold. Salt is useless when road surfaces don’t get above 15 degrees or so. People just have to learn to drive carefully on snow covered roads, and accept in the winter that it’s normal and healthy for roads to be covered with snow.

Some people think weather that struggles to break 0 degrees is no fun. But natural gas and oil is cheap this year, and you can bundle up when you go outside, especially if the wind isn’t whipping around. And less road salt is good not just for cars and bridges, and our dress paints and wool overcoats — but also the environment.

Bring on the cold this winter!