Autumnal equinox

It sounded as if a plane were flying overhead around dawn, but the sound kept recurring. They can't land planes at Mitchell that quickly...as it happens, it was rolling thunder. We had quite a show in the dawn hour; in fact, at quarter after six, when the sun should have been fully up and everything bright and visible, it was darker than midnight on the night of a new moon.

My kind of day.

By the time I hurried out an hour later with book bag in hand to go to the coffee shop, the rain had mostly stopped, though it was still darker than usual, with gorgeous grey clouds piled up in the west. Alas, it wasn't to be an all day rain; the sun is out currently, as is fitting for an equinox.

This is the kind of Saturday when you put a pot of soup on to cook, throw an apple/hazelnut crumble in the oven, pour a glass of wine and read in front of the fire. I can do three of the four; the ground beef for the soup isn't thawed and the crockpot recipe takes eight hours to cook. Ah well, it will go in the crock before I leave for church tomorrow.

All in all, this is a great start to the season. Temperatures go back to "seasonal" after tomorrow, so the snuggly quilts will stay in the cupboard for another couple of weeks. But pumpkins and chrysanthemums are out at the grocery, along with the first of the winter squash and shiny purple eggplant. The nights are colder, the sunset earlier. Leaves are not only turning, but drifting to the ground.

Happy fall.