With Labor Day coming up this weekend, summer’s activities are winding down in the Finger Lakes and preparations for the beginning of the school year have been underway for some time. My daughter Michele was in the Union-Endicott High School color guard when we lived in Endwell, NY and each August she would attend a two week camp to prepare the flag twirling routines for the fall U-E football season.
And so it is with Mother Nature as She prepares for the coming fall season around the Finger Lakes. The goldenrod in the fields is a beautiful yellow and contrasts sharply with the darker blue of the lake and the lighter blue of the hazy August sky. A few of the leaves on the trees are now turning yellow and starting to fall. The night time temperatures are cooling off into the 60’s as the harvest moon creeps up higher and higher on the eastern horizon.
Labor Day weekend is a good time to just kick-back and try to figure out where all of the summer went! It’s a time to be thankful for all of the sunny days that we enjoyed in the Finger Lakes, the beautiful red tomatoes, the onions, and potatoes which will be the base for this winter’s soups! It’s also a time to wonder who and how were the Finger Lakes formed. Whose hands were powerful enough to dig out the beds of the lakes and pile the dirt onto the hillsides? It’s a time for our Finger Lakes Native Americans to celebrate their meager harvest of corn and fish and to begin preparing for the long cold winter. It’s a time for vacationers to get in one last weekend of boating and perhaps a picnic outside while the weather is still warm.
Yes, fall will be here soon enough. Only a very few maples are just starting to turn. And if you are a little duck whose feathers have not even grown out yet, its time to grab an evening snack among the lily pads before it gets too dark and you have to fly south to warmer temperatures.
Beautifully done! Gorgeous. He who dug out the lakes by (his hands) wants to walk here. First came His hands. Will we let Him leave His footprints, too?
Bob,
Thanks for your comment. My first thoughts were that only man’s impressions will be left on the Finger Lakes. But, you raise an interesting point. I think that He will have the last say and that His final footprints may not be to the liking of mankind.