last gasp of autumn color

The burning bush is showing the effects of frost but hanging on to keep giving us autumn color.  The other deciduous tree with leaves left is the beautiful Sweet Gum whose star-shaped purple leaves, when they do fall, stand out among the browns of poplars and oaks. 

Hazy skies of Indian Summer

A temperature that hit 70F and hazy skies have been the norm this week of our Indian Summer, a time in autumn when the first hard frost has come but not the first snow.  The term was first used in Letters From an American Farmer, a 1778 work by the French-American soldier turned farmer J. H. St. John de Crèvecoeur (a.k.a. Michel-Guillaume-Jean de Crèvecoeur):

"Then a severe frost succeeds which prepares it to receive the voluminous coat of snow which is soon to follow; though it is often preceded by a short interval of smoke and mildness, called the Indian Summer." (from The Phrase Finder)

American historian Daniel Boorstin in The Americans: the Colonial Experience "speculates that the term originated from raids on European colonies by Indian war parties; these raids usually ended in autumn, hence the extension to summer-like weather in the fall as an Indian summer. Two of the three other known uses of the term in the 18th century are from accounts kept by two army officers leading retaliation expeditions against Indians for raids on settlers in Ohio and Indiana in 1790 and Pennsylvania, in 1794."  But there is also the suggestion that is named for the traditional period when early Native Americans harvested squash and corn. (see Wikipedia article on Indian Summer)

In Western Europe this type of weather was called St. Martin's Summer from the feast of that saint on November 11, while Russians and East Europeans called it Old Ladies Summer.  And Indian Summer is the name given to the Milwaukee ethnic festival held in September honoring Native Americans: Indian Summer Festival.

No matter what name you give it, we have been enjoying what the National Weather Service defines as,  "a period of considerably above normal temperatures, accompanied by dry and hazy conditions ushered in on a south or southwesterly breeze."  See the attempt by a weather historian to deal with the naming issue in the article, Just what is Indian Summer and did Indians really have anything to do with it?

If you are in the midst of Indian Summer, please enjoy it!  And check out more skies on Skywatch Friday.

Rural Electric Coops

Our rural electric coop used to have a much more place-specific name, Fruit Belt Electric Coop, which is so descriptive of the large number of orchards that grace the hillsides of southwest Michigan.  It is one of 930 electric coops in the United States, most begun under the New Deal of Franklin D. Roosevelt in order to bring electricity to rural areas.

Midwest Energy's main office is in the Cass County right next door to St. Joseph County and we visited it to pick up free fluorescent light bulbs and an application for "interruptible electric service."  Our new furnace has a heat pump making us eligible for a 50% reduction in the electric rate we pay if we agree that the Coop can interrupt our service at peak hours.  We figure it is worth a try!

a quirky word for Q Day

There at the very top it is: the quoin, or more familiarly the keystone, allowing this couple to walk by with complete confidence that nothing will fall down on them.  He is truly unconcerned, but she is gazing at the top of the arch just to be sure.
This quoin is part of the Grand Rapids Arch by British sculptor Andy Goldsworthy at the Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park.
For more explorations of the quirkiness of Q, visit ABC Wednesday.

Dedicated to the truly serious among us

This is Scott's Falls at the west end of the AuTrain Bay, but I do not know the name of the intrepid photographer who is risking limbs, no doubt, and perhaps his camera by wading in.   We have not often seen this falls with water, but this September it was filled and flowing with water, and a photographer.