Weather Note

November is my favorite month of the year; it's the height of autumn here in the NC Piedmont. There are two types of weather I like a lot this time of year: the dry, sunny, cool days, with a sky the color of sapphire and the smell of leaves everywhere; and the grey, cool, overcast days that I associate with childhood and Christmas season.

Today is one of the grey days. One of the big sugar maples in the side yard has dropped most of its leaves, making a golden carpet. A red-shouldered hawk called from a nearby tree as I took the dog out, and a Carolina Wren scolded me from the low brush in the area where the dog took a dump. We've mowed the lawn for the last time this year, hopefully, and soon wild onions will make their appearance, pushing up through the grass.

The sugar maples are the big show-offs right now with their golden foliage; the sweet gums drop scarlet leaves, as do the few hickories in the yard. The oaks, mostly scarlet oak, turn coppery and then brown before dropping their leaves. Poison Ivy, believe it or not, is a handsome creeper in the fall, turning a pretty red color before shedding its toxic leaves. Don't rake poison ivy leaves into a bonfire pile, the smoke itself is toxic.

I have been taking my annual vacations in the fall for the past dozen years or so. With my mother an invalid, I can't really go anywhere, so it will be three weeks here at the house in early December, trying to catch up on sleep lost during the year. When I return to work it is the quietest time of year at the hotel, so it is like having an additional couple of weeks' vacation.