I don’t Spartan, but I have always felt that the race itself constitutes the beginning of the fall season. Although this year, with the hot summer temperatures, I’m not really sure how that fits in to any season except “Vermont.” But at the same time, it’s my signal to kick in the dryland training, that we could be earning our turns on some fast grass within a month and lifts could be running within six weeks! Winter is coming!
On my hikes around the mountain, I have heard the constant sound of lawn mowers running up and around almost everywhere. Superstar looks glorious with her fresh haircut, enabling the snowmakers to have a much easier time of throwing down all that World Cup snow. It’s funny, how if I was hiking single track on the AT or the Long Trail, I would be so frustrated to hear those gas powered machines destroying the peacefulness of nature. But out here, walking the mountain, it gets me all excited and filled with just a little more joy. Winter is coming!
I love seeing the colors changing— right now they are evoking this amazing rustic feeling. With each tree that starts to lose its greenness, my soul gets a littlest happier. Not because something is dying, but because the circle of life is continuing forward and bringing us one step closer to winter!
The gravel is even drying out as the trees to soak in every last bit out of the ground as they prepare to hibernate for the upcoming season. There’s an urgency, a feeling of so much to be done before the snow begins to fall and the ground begins to freeze, which hopefully happens this year…
At home, all my plants are starting to die, with just the rudbeckias still having any color at all. I am not the world’s best gardener by any means, so perhaps I could have planted a better variety of pre-autumn color. But I like to let the leaves do my fall coloring for me. And I do love the colors of the plants as they die away in the autumn. Those dark rich reds and browns get me all excited to cut them back so the snow can fall smoothly and not be interrupted with the odd dying plant sticking out. Winter is coming!
It’s that time of year where we can actually open the doors to our extremely tight home, turn the air conditioner off and let the cool air in. Our little log cabin is a roasting oven. Which is great in the winter, but can be absolutely miserable in the summertime without the A/C. Even I, who absolutely hates air conditioning, had to give in when the temperature in our bedroom loft rose to over 90 degrees on one particularly warm summer day. No, thank you!
I’m pretty sure this is why I love fall so much. Yes, it’s beautiful and I want to spend every minute of my day outside somewhere: hiking, going for a foliage drive or just plain sitting on my front porch watching the colors turn (if only it happened like that).
Unlike summer that seems to just sit there, autumn feels like you can actually feel the world moving, to me anyway. The colors on the trees are so fleeting and the leaves fall from their spots on the trees so quickly — you have to be present in that one particular moment or you are going to miss the whole thing.
And the best part? The thinning of the air. Which is actually not what happens. According to Charles Law, in chemistry, the volume of a gas (in our case, the nitrogen, oxygen and other molecules) is directly proportionate to its absolute temperature. So while we feel that summer air is heavier, it’s because it is trying to take up as much space as possible. It might also have a higher humidity level, which makes the molecules move faster, making them push harder onto things. Granted, I did not do very well in AP Chemistry at Deerfield, but I can feel when I am working against the air or water rather than with it. With the cold, slower and more dense air, I find it easier to breathe, more fun to be outside and I cannot wait to feel the super cold air freezing my insides with each breathe. The super cool feeling of freezing from the inside out.
But we’re not there, yet.
We first have to enjoy the FairyTale Festival and Brewfest this weekend while we get our gear ready for the foliage ski swaps. We have to prep our Sotheby’s Realty booth for the Boston Ski Show and put the finishing touches on designing a new pair of skis. We need to finalize the purchase on that Killington property so that we can be “in the home” by World Cup. Because winter is coming!!
Merisa Sherman is a long time Killington resident, global real estate advisor, town lister and member of the development review board. She is also Coach PomPom. Reach out to her at [email protected].
