At exactly 12:19 yesterday afternoon, the sun crossed the celestial equator on its way south. That instant marked the start of autumn. It’s not a date we simply penciled in on the calendar—it’s a real event in the sky, measurable down to the minute.
The word equinox means “equal night,”
and though day and night are not perfectly balanced, they are close. From here,
the tilt of the Earth gives Montana shorter days and longer nights until winter
solstice.
On the ground, changes are already
underway. Bull elk have started to bugle, their high, fluting calls echoing
through mountain valleys and carrying across the prairie as they gather harems
of cows. And, of course, some trees have started blushing with colors.
Desiree, having lived on islands
where the sun holds high in the sky and seasons exist in name only, finds
autumn dazzling. She’s particularly enamored with trees that blush red before
shedding their leaves wholesale. Last year, we planted an autumn splendor
buckeye near the front drive to provide us with a splash of red in the fall.
Over the last week or so, the tree has flushed through with warm red colors.
Desiree is not disappointed.
—Mitchell Hegman
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