Autumn is in the air in Daydreaming on the Porch

“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;…

To Autumn
by John Keats

“Then summer fades and passes and October comes. We’ll smell smoke then and feel an unexpected sharpness, a thrill of nervousness, swift elation, a sense of sadness and departure.”

Thomas Wolfe

This morning it was cool, clear and the skies were perfect blue. Mid October and Autumn as arrived in all it mood-inspiring glory here in the Lowcountry. We may not have brilliant orange and red Fall foliage here, but in coastal South Carolina the marsh grasses turns a russet brown, the leaves of dogwoods and swamp maples give us a taste of red brilliance so abundant in the mountains far to the north of us in the upstate and North Carolina, and the camellias begin their Fall and Winter blooming.

The mood is definitely harvest season now. I love this time of year. There are so many subtle indicators, but overall it’s a sense of major relief that the oppressive heat of September is gone. It’s going out on the porch in the morning to get the paper in my new flannel shirt. It’s watching the leaves for shades of yellow that linger for awhile but then turn brown. The venerable hackberry trees at Colonial Lake go from green to brown in a slow process that is well underway now. It’s sad in a way, for I love the rich green of those trees in Spring and Summer.

This is also the season where I travel back most often to the past and where the memories of a lifetime seem to start crowding together and vying for attention. I who dwell perhaps too much in the past, am not apologetic for this. Autumn feelings and memories are as much a part of the fabric of my being as the memories of summer at the beach or mowing lawns in the heat of a July afternoon in New Orleans.

Time seems to slow down in October so we can take stock of things before Winter sets in. I want to get on the road and travel the country highways and see the sharp, golden light of Autumn in the fields and woods. As the great writer Thomas Wolfe said, there’s a “thrill of nervousness” and a “sense of sadness and departure.” In Autumn I board a train that carries me through the countryside of memories of childhood, youth and adulthood. Every year it’s been this way, only now as I get older, those feelings and moods are more poignant, the sense of what has gone before more intensely felt.

Sweetgrass in bloom, a sure sign of Autumn in Charleston.



Sasanqua camellias start blooming in September and October in our area.

Dogwood



Autumn flowers at Magnolia Gardens

Chrysanthemums


We do get some brilliant red leaves here in Autumn

Last updated October 18, 2014