In Central Alberta we've had a fall with long, pleasant, dry weather. I was able to share many colorful fall scenes. However, fall weather slowly and quietly cools until plant life has either died or become dormant so that it can survive the winter.
Animals have slowly made changes. We still have bears wandering around looking for food as the berry crop was poor this year. We have many gulls, ducks and geese sitting around. However many ducks and geese are gone and song birds disappeared as much as ten weeks ago. And my favorite, the jack rabbit, has pretty well got it's white winter coat.
Yesterday the sun rose at 7:40 and set at 16:56 so we had 9 hours and 16 minutes of sunlight. Changing to daylight savings time seems to have shortened our afternoons in a hurry and of course, that's exactly what changing back to standard time does.
Yesterday the low was minus 8 C (eh) (18 F). The high was about 3 C. Small ponds are covered with ice. Larger ponds are half frozen. Of course, the lakes and rivers are still ice free.
I, for one, enjoy the seasons of the year. It's one of the things that keeps us vigorous as we have to challenge the changes.
In 45 days we will be at the winter solstice. We are 45 days from the fall equinox.
Now the point of no return is meaningless here as the season comes no matter what. That's life.
