I went on a jog today after work in an attempt to savor the last few weeks of good weather. It was a perfect autumn day, so nice that I found myself slowing down to a walk and extending my usual 3 mile course to last longer and longer.
The sun is setting and dust hangs low in the sky casting a gold glow on the earth. The fields of drying corn look ablaze as the sun sets over them. The fields of cut hay contrast in their soft green-not the vivid green of spring but a slowing drying green. Soon the fields will be empty and waiting the cold solace of winter.
The air is just cool enough to feel cool, and when I jog down a small hill I hit a pocket of crisp, sweet smelling air. I breathe it in deeply. The best thing about autumn in the country is the smells- there are so many wonderful natural smells that cannot be described well in words. There is the smell of onions- pungent, acrid, the smell makes your nose curl. The onion aroma overpowers almost everything this time of year. But there are other smells too, the dry corn smells of wood and there is the smell of smoke as plant debris is burned before winter.
The sounds are also common only to this time of year. The clammer of digger chains lifting the onions and potatoes out of the dirt. The rustle the leaves of corn make as the wind blows. The water in the ditch flowing only in a trickle hardly makes a sound. And the cheers of the parents as their young sons play football.
Autumn is one of my favorite times. Perhaps the weather will hold for a few more weeks, and I will remember to forgo my iPod so that I might truely enjoy my autmn jog.
