Autumn

I've spent an hour now looking for a poem or a quote or some snippet that expresses my autumn. I want the nip in the air...the cool clear nights...the magic of jack'o'lanterns and cider...the feeling as you land in a big pile of leaves that you've been building up for what seems like forever...pulling out soft sweaters and cozy blankets...and I couldn't find that all in one nice package. Even poets aren't perfect I guess.

But aside from the perfectness of the weather, I've always thought the science behind an equinox is so very cool.

"In astronomy, the autumnal equinox (fall equinox, September equinox, or southward equinox) signals the beginning of autumn in the northern hemisphere: the moment when the sun appears to cross the celestial equator, heading southward; the equinox occurs around September 22–September 24, varying slightly each year according to the 400-year cycle of leap years in the Gregorian Calendar.

At the equinox, the sun rises directly in the east and sets directly in the west. In the northern hemisphere, before the autumnal equinox, the sun rises and sets more and more to the north, and afterwards, it rises and sets more and more to the south." (Wikipedia).

I read a bulletin at school the other day about a professor who does walks on campus for each equinox. The technical perfect moment of the equinox today was at five this morning, so that's when they walked. It sounded a ted bit magical--walking around campus in the middle of the night, stargazing...but alas, as fall creeps in and as the nights get cooler, there's no amount of stargazing to beat hunkering down under the covers with sweet husband and two warm dogs.