A Different Season

In the Fall of 2020, I created a short slide show that transitioned through the Fall season.  You can see that in my essay, ‘CONSIDERING FALL’.  I was setting up to do something similar this Fall season this year, then nothing happened!  Well, of course, something did happen, but at a pace that I wasn’t prepared for—slow.

In other parts of the world, this has been a dreadful three months (September, October, November), but here, in the Bow Valley our climate has been rather gentle.

In the USA they dealt with Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.  In addition, there have been some record high temperatures during these months here and elsewhere in North America.  The devastation and losses from Helene and Milton are truly sad.  These sorts of storms as well as our terrible forest fires in Canada make me think that we can’t do much to stop such occurrences and must start focussing on preparation to deal with such disasters to come.

I want to turn my discussion to the extended Fall season we’ve had here at home.  I have only one word to describe it—marvellous!  The warm weather extended our colourful Fall, and the lack of snow contributed to this feeling.

I proceeded to photographically document the changes, because I still wanted to produce something for the seasonal change.  As I look at the images I’ve made and consider the extended Fall days, it almost looks like we need to create a whole new season, but I have no idea what to call it. 

I've decided to make this a photographic essay, with a few notes on what I saw.

[ Don't forget to make use of the full screen display. ]

September 27: A favourite fishing hole for three young lads along the Sheep River in Okotoks.

October 9: I couldn't believe it. A new rose in October in our garden.

October 14: The Poplar leaves are almost gone on these sentinels on Lower Mitford Pond, Cochrane.

October 29: Our red Ninebark bush is still colourful and the leaves are pliable...it's very much alive.

November 6: Still no snow since a short lived snowfall on October 22. It's a little cooler, but the sun is out and still provides some warmth.

November 14: Although the tree and bush leaves are finished, the green grass remains.

November 15: Although the colour of the Fall leaves is holding, the air is freezing, the clouds have the look of snow clouds, and we're dressing for winter. But, still no snow and the sun is brilliant. The good life continues.

November 14: Our yellow Ninebark holds on as though it was still October.

November 16: The evening frost has arrived and left its sign on the edges of the leaves.

November 18: Winter has finally arrived with all its attributes--lots of snow, -9°C, and grey skies.

When I look back over the years, I can remember that this abrupt arrival of winter often happened on Halloween. The kids would get dressed up, but then have to cover it all with their winter clothes. When I was young, we would be invited into homes to get out of the cold and show of our outfits. Often we also were asked to do a performance of some sort before we got our candy. If there was a piano in the house my friends would turn it over to me to play something. That always worked!

On this November day this year, I went out for a walk. The country around home was still lovely and walking in this stuff was invigorating. Boot cleats are now a good idea. These days, if I fall, I don't 'bounce' the way I used to.

November 18, on my walk.