Or maybe I should call this the continuing tales of the allergic Druid.

I’ve been meaning to write this post for weeks but I’m lazy, I don’t budget time well, I forgot, the excuses roll on. But today at the autumn equinox is a perfect time because this post all ties into that. Because I think this fall and winter are going to be weird. The signs are there to be read (and helps that I’m also a biologist).

When I headed back to Ohio in August I noticed something. I was already seeing Ironweed and Joe-Pye weed which are typically not seen until late September. They’re fall flowers. Usually I see them with golden rod and fall asters. Looking out the windows now, I only see the latter as the two ‘weeds’ are already spent and gone. Just a few years ago I collecting those weeds for a ‘witch’s hut’ in a haunted village thing I was part of. This year they came early.

Also early were the birds. Even before I came back to OH, birds were massing and flying south way in advance of their usual time.

The leaves have already begun to fall. Not change color and fall, just dropping off dead. That I can at least attribute to the dry summer. We are in near drought conditions this year, I’m sad to say.

But I can’t shake the feelings that the animals and plants know something I don’t, something I should pay attention to.

I fear a bad winter. Now winter is my favorite month but as I get a bit older and sicker, I am wary, especially as my apartment has no generator and is all electrical. I’ve had many a winter when I’ve had to leave because of the extended intense cold. If I can’t find a gas-heat house, I will have to buy myself a generator but that’s for the future.

In the meantime, I plan to enjoy my favorite time of year. Pumpkin everything!