First day of fall

This is definitely the first day of fall even if, officially, that orange-and-yellow season doesn't start for another 10 days.

The dogs and I are back in the apartment in the woods and by 7 a.m., when we were up and strolling at the outskirts of The Village, it was all of a brisk and fallish 46 degrees.

The old dogs love the cooler weather and they seemed young and spry in their enthusiasm for our daily morning walk. I took advantage of that energy and we walked almost a mile this morning, rather than just the usual 1/2 or 3/4 of a mile we walk back in our city home.

We were the only ones around, except for the loudly crowing crows, the faint tik-tikitit-tik of a woodpecker going at it in a faraway tree, and a family of deer, mostly does and a fawn, who hang out near the apartments. We see them almost every time we walk, day or evening, and they see us. One of them always makes like s/he wants to come over and meet us, but then thinks better of it once the other 4 or 5 have sprinted away, white tails twitching into the woods.

But today, for the first time, only the fawn and another doe ran. The larger three just stood their ground, and I thought they were wagging their puffy tails as they watched us pass. Maybe they'll get used to us, I thought, when they figure out we mean them no harm.

The morning walks are always invigorating here and now more so because they've built a sidewalk on the main road into The Village that the dogs and I make good use of. Before, the walk could feel like a death-defying feat when the large pickup trucks of country folk sped by us. But now we stroll leisurely on a nice, wide sidewalk, well removed from the road and the barreling trucks. Quite an improvement, we all agree.

As we walked out into the chilly air of this first fall morning, I was thankful that I brought a light jacket with me. Otherwise, I would've had to wear one of my nice work blazers on my morning stroll, which would've surely made me feel absolutely overdressed.

The large picture windows are still fogged up but I can hear the birds outside, already, like me, having started their day. I sprinkled bird seed on the window sill and I'm sitting here, doing my work, ready to greet the tit mice, Blue Jays, chickadees, downy woodpeckers and nuthatches that breakfast at my table, so to speak.