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BACK TO MAIN
Read First: My Favorite Time of Year
Special Magic. There's something in our DNA (meaning all living things on Earth) that makes us love Fall (Autumn). That's why I am building this little complex of linked websites to celebrate Fall, both as a webmaster, and as an author & poet. I'm not alone, as you'll find in my translation of Rainer Maria Rilke's famous poem Herbsttag (German for Autumn Day).
NOTE: This page was formerly part of a separate website titled Autumn Planet. The original linked website titles are now the folder headings you see on the starting page (MAIN). I have chosen to retain much of the original flavoring for the overall Autumn into Winter months. [JTC]
Don't get me wrong—I love all four seasons, and life itself which offers such riches and beauty. Why do we feel such stirrings about a time of year when days get shorter, the weather generally gets cooler and wetter and windier? I'll discuss my ideas about that soon, so stay tuned. This website will long remain under construction, and I'm just getting started.
My Autumn Web Sites. As a person and as a poet/author, I have always loved Fall. That's what Autumn is called in New England, where I spent my adolescence and early adulthood). Seems appropriate: the time of falling leaves, summer's end, harvest festival, holiday season, you name it. It's not just me or you, or the USA. It's a special time everywhere on the planet in its turn. By that I mean the seasons are reversed in the northern and southern hemispheres of the earth, so when we on the northern half are in Autumn Planet mode, the folks south of the Equator are enjoying Spring (yeah, and that's great too). Flip that around, and when it's Spring up top, folks in South America, Australia-New Zealand, much of Africa, and many dots on the map south of the Equator are enjoying their version(s) of Autumn.
Structure & Arrangement. Initially I created October Mood. That's only one month, and so I created a November subpage as well (Autumn Planet). Technically, Autumn begins at the end of Summer, when the Earth goes through its Autumn Equinox. That's a moment in time, in late September, when day and night are equal in length. All things astronomical are quite complicated, of course. While it is the Autumn Equinox in the Northern Hemisphere, it is the Vernal (Spring) Equinox in the Southern Hemisphere.
I cheated a little bit and started my clock on 1 October, but who cares to be overly technical? The season called Autumn is three months long, and ends at the Winter Solstice, when days are shortest and nights the longest. The farther you go north on my side of the Equator, the more drastic the time differences. More on all that some time soon.
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