Fall-ing in Love Again

American Lady with Blue Mistflowers and Rudbeckia

I am so happy that Fall is here. I'm not talking about pumpkin spice or sweater weather. I love fall because this is when the wildflowers are at their peak and the butterflies arrive in force. The bees and wasps will have been busy all summer, but the butterflies like to wait until the flowers are at their tastiest and most beautiful. It's my favorite time to lead kids on hikes at the Nature Center. We see so much! Spiders, caterpillars, butterflies, stick bugs, mantises. Fall is full of life. I learned to love fall wildflowers when we lived in Florida and I worked at Morningside Nature Center. I got to know the flowers of the Longleaf Pine Sandhill there, which is one of the most beautiful things ever. Click here to read my blog about it: https://earthteachme.blogspot.com/2013/09/morningside.html I started my flower garden at home to attract butterflies when I saw how they loved the wildflowers in the sandhill. The flower show in our garden starts small in the spring with welcome but small sprouts of green and flashes of yellow and pink. But by fall it is a mad burst of purple and gold, tall stems tumbling over each other. I could barely walk the path through the middle of the garden today because it had grown so thick. But the result is a moving carpet of rainbow colors, buzzing, fluttering, and chirping. The birds, rabbits, squirrels and deer love it too. 

Katydid

Fall is the time that I get to step back and just admire and enjoy the fruits of my labors. It's my reward for the sweaty work planting, watering and weeding that I do in the spring and summer, though admittedly, nature does most of the work. It's a joy to just step out the front door and be surrounded by such beauty. I take far too many pictures. It makes me happy to see other people pass by the yard and stop for a picture of their own. A runner yesterday waved and said "¡Que Rico!" and blew kisses to the flowers. It makes me feel good to provide a nature sanctuary on a busy corner where campus buses drive by every few minutes and commuters line up at the beginning and end of their day. I love this garden.

On the Bus Route--Goldenrod and Asters Abound

American Lady, Blue Mistflower, and the Commuters

Fall is also hurricane season. It's been a wild week. On Thursday we watched the destruction in Florida as hurricane Helene grew to a category 4 storm.We anxiously waited for it to roar over the top of Athens during the night. I took pictures of the garden on Thursday, fully expecting that it would all be smashed flat by the storm the next day. But Friday morning we woke to light rain and some wind gusts and found that we had come through mercifully unscathed. The storm had taken a more easterly path. But then we saw the terrible damage as it tore through up the eastern half of the state and up to the Carolinas, Tennessee and Kentucky. There was some damage in our town, but nothing like what happened all around us. We feel very lucky--the devastation and loss is shocking. Some of those communities will never be the same again. Our garden was untouched.

The Day Before the Storm 

Then on Sunday we started getting reports of a toxic chemical fire in Conyers, about 40 miles to the west, and to be prepared to stay inside with windows closed if the chemical cloud started to drift our way. Luckily the fire seems to be under control and the cloud has not made it here yet, though it looks like the toxicity would be diluted by the wind by the time it got here if it did. But 17,000 people were told to evacuate, many to Athens. Crazy. What's next? An asteroid? Volcano?

Not smelling any chlorine because the toxic cloud was far away, I took a walk around Lake Herrick, where I used to walk all the time and in January had started writing about for an exercise in exploring place. I've been avoiding going there--it just makes me sad since the nursing student was murdered there in February (see previous blogs). I hadn't been there since June. I decided to go see if I could find any of the birds that had been reported after the hurricane (I didn't). It was nice to walk the trails again, but it still felt sad. This summer the university installed numerous emergency call boxes throughout the woods as a safety measure. I understand why they put them in, but for me, seeing the bright red light in the woods just reminds me that it is a sad place. I'm just not sure I can write about my connection to the place any more. I get distracted by the misery. So I am letting that "Journey in Place" project go. I'll certainly go back to Lake Herrick over and over again. But reflecting on my feelings there is too sad, and I feel like having the project hanging over me has been a burden that kept me from being able to write at all. I've been stuck. But walking home from Lake Herrick, I saw my garden up ahead in the distance, all full of movement and life, and I felt relief, and the urge to write about it. Just the nudge I needed. Thank you, garden, for giving me joy, beauty, and peace.

Pearl Crescent on Rudbeckia

Cabbage White on Blue Mistflower

Yellow Collared Scape Moth on Blue Mistflower

Fiery Skipper on Blue Mistflower

Buckeye on Blue Mistflower

American Snout on Blue Mistflower

Ocola Skipper on Blue Mistflower

Swamp Sunflower

Leafcutter Bee on Blue Mistflower

Ailanthus Webworm Moth on Blue Mistflower

Georgia Aster

First Monarch of Fall

Staring into the Sun

Eclipse Art in the Park

I have seen a few partial solar eclipses over the years. The first I recall was when I was in high school. I stood out on the front steps of the building with my classmates and we took turns looking through sheets exposed film, which in hindsight, wasn't so smart. In later years I showed my kids how to observe the sun safely on a piece of paper through pinhole cameras, and watching the myriad tiny eclipse images that shone through the leaves on the trees and onto the sidewalk. We got about 80% of the Annular Eclipse last fall and were able to watch it with our granddaughter. Eclipses are really special events.

Mini Eclipses through the leaves in 2017. We never saw these this time. 

In 2017, my husband and I had the exciting chance to see a total solar eclipse just about an hour's drive from our home here in Athens, GA. We weren't sure what to expect, but we had our safe eclipse viewing glasses this time (no exposed film), and I brought my camera to try to photograph the event. I did take photos once we were in total darkness, but I had not thought about needing a filter for the camera as the eclipse was progressing, so I did not get any images of the sun slowly disappearing. It was an amazing experience. Nothing really prepared us for the full deal. The difference between the filtered light of a partial eclipse and the total eclipse is hard to even express. I wrote about the 2017 eclipse in my blog here. At the end of the day we knew that if we had a chance to see another total eclipse we would jump on it. Immediately after the eclipse, the news reported on upcoming solar events and it turned out that the next one would be on April 8, 2024, and Little Rock, Arkansas, where our daughter lives, would be right in the zone of totality! 

Gotta Be Safe!

I'm happy to report that we made good on our promise and were able to take the trip to Little Rock for the total eclipse last week. We were nervous about the weather right up to the day before. Rain and clouds were on and off in the forecast for weeks. And the state of Arkansas warned about traffic problems with the huge crowds that were expected. The governor declared a state of emergency. 

Party in a Box

So Fun!

Eclipse Ice Cream is the Best Kind!

Arkansas Travelers Getting in on the Fun!

We woke up Monday morning to a clear, nice day and set up our chairs and snacks and gear on the driveway in our daughter's front yard! It's so convenient to live in the path of an eclipse! The City of Little Rock gave away some cute Eclipse Watch Party boxes. They had fun themed items like Moon Pies, Capri Sun, Sun Chips, Sunflower Seeds and Orbit Gum. Pretty cute. The state transportation department had some amusing electronic signs on the highway. The whole town was getting into the spirit. A local creamery created special "Dark Side of the Moon" Ice Cream. The Arkansas Travelers baseball team wore jerseys with a total eclipse on the back and sold them after their weekend series as a fundraiser for the team. Downtown there was an Eclipse Fest with a Pink Floyd cover band. Free eclipse glasses all around! 

Awkward and Wobbly Tripod

Heavy, but much better. Totality is only 3 minutes!

I was better prepared for photography this time. I bought a filter for my camera and got a lot of images of the partial sun. I practiced using the filter to take shots of the full sun before we left for our trip. I still wasn't quite prepared for the whole event, though. There are so few opportunities to photograph a total eclipse that I couldn't really practice in the dark, so each time was a learning experience.  When the sun was suddenly covered by the moon, I forgot that I had to take the filter off to see anything and fumbled for a few seconds trying to find the eclipse in the viewer before pulling off the filter and snapping away. If I do this again I might bring a sturdier tripod. But I did ok holding the camera in my hands.

Eclipse Family!

Sun through the strainer

Eclipse Sparkles

We were also prepared to entertain and protect a 4 year old. We helped her decorate a paper plate to hold her glasses against her face. This was an ingenious idea found online. We also brought out a colander to use as a pinhole viewer on the ground, and a sequined stuffed animal to shine little eclipses. The images through the colander proved pretty unsatisfying, and we also didn't see the changes in the light shining through the leaves of the trees on the ground. I don't know why. The sparkly sequins gave a fun effect. A few neighbors came out on their lawns to watch, and we could see people at nearby businesses outside, too. It was very merry.

Full Sun (taken in Athens as a test--sun spot is in different location in later photos)

As the visible sun appeared smaller and smaller, the light changed and it started to feel like dusk at 1pm. Confused birds called. Sensors up and down the street turned porch lights on. The sky was darkening and the temperature dropped. Because we were in the city with traffic sounds, we didn't hear insects like crickets, but still everything seemed quieter. Just as it got totally dark a large flock of crows flew overhead, cawing loudly. Suddenly it was dark and we all tore off our glasses to look at the marvel of a completely blocked sun. We could see stars. The sun's corona glowed from behind the moon and we could see colored flashes that were solar prominences. The totality lasted almost 3 minutes, which was much longer than we had in 2017, at 1 minute, 20 seconds. It was one of the prettiest things I've ever seen. All of us just stood and marveled. Even the four year old. 

Totality

Corona and Prominences

Corona and Prominences

Baily's Beads--Light rays from the Sun streaming through the valleys along the Moon's horizon. 

"Diamond Ring" Effect

And then the first flash of light, called the "diamond ring effect" and the totality was over. The sun is so incredibly bright that a tiny sliver of light from the edge lights the sky and burns the eyes. Glasses and filters back on, and we watched the cheshire cat smile of the sun growing from the bottom of the sun up as the moon continued in its path. 

I'm not sure, but I think that after doing this two times, I may want to be an umbriphile, or person who chases eclipses. The next one will be visible from Iceland and Spain in 2026. Sounds pretty good! Or better yet, Australia has 4 coming up between 2028 and 2038! But this was the last viewable in the US until 2044, so I'm awfully glad we got to see this one! Shine on!