Harbingers of the Season

Pines released their needles, creating a golden-hued carpet. Those pine needles glowed beneath my sneakers, and as I shuffled through their lush thickness, the sweet scent of evergreens filled my happy heart.

Fall was my favorite time of the year at our lake cottage in the Adirondacks. Only a very few campers were still about, allowing every sound of the forest to be magnified as it bounced off the clear lake.

Blue jays warbling and squirrels chattering—music masked during the summer—reaches its crescendo in the stillness. Humans create their own noise, from the steady murmur between the adults on the beach or the delighted squeals of children running into the water