October is a month of many dramatic endings and few promising beginnings. But, it’s when Summer makes her brilliant exit, which usually is our most colorful scene of the year. This year was no exception. The Blueberry fields turned scarlet and trees became daubs of reds, yellows, and greens. The woods became a cool world of sunny canopies, bronzed ferns, jeweled floors, and bubbling streams.
Our fields started turning to gold almost immediately after their usual October mowing.
With the fields mowed, we got a better view of the White-Tailed Deer that sleep in them. By October, the coats of the Deer and Red Squirrels were turning to winter gray. We saw what we think were the last of many of our Summer fauna in October, including Damselflies, Monarch Butterflies (which had a very good Summer here), and Sandpipers. But we also saw our resident American Crows starting to come together in their winter defensive colonies that will have more eyes and ears when the leaves are gone and they become more obvious to resident owls and eagles.
October also usually is when we see the last of the sailboats in our coves. The final Outward Bound sailing class of the year rowed into Great Cove during a squall this October. To our surprise, Eigyr, a Brooklin boat, sailed into the Cove in drizzly fog on October 30. Most other smaller recreational boats have been hauled ashore for storage, along with their mooring gear. (The moored one shown below was brought ashore in late October.)
Many of the fishermen started bringing their lobster traps ashore for storage in October. Some of their vessels will be fishing for Scallops in the winter; others will be (or already are) “hardscaped” until June.
In the October gardens, we saw the last of the year’s many of the leaves, vegetables, flowers, and berries . These included, among many others, Viburnum; Tomatoes; Montauk (Fall) Daisies; Morning Glories; Hydrangea; Hostas; Barberry; two hues of Redvein Enkianthus, and the last Rose:
Similarly, much of the wild flora made their last stands in the October fields, woods, and ponds. These steadfast plants included, among many others, Queen Anne’s Lace; Asters; Asian Bittersweet, Euonymus (Burning Bush); Winterberry, and Green Arrow Arum.
As far as trees are concerned, the October Spruce were choking on cones; Stewartia leaves turned wine-purple; Red Maples finally become red, and the Mountain Ash and Apple Trees were showing what appear to be record numbers of fruits.
In mid-October, we had a serious Nor’Easter that blew down trees and power lines, leaving hundreds of thousands of Mainers without standard electricity. (Many generators were humming for 24 hours or more.)
Of course, Halloween is in October. This year, unfortunately, it was very windy and rainy that night, limiting the tricking and treating. But the imaginative Halloween decorations abounded.
Finally, one of the compensations for losing Summer is the Winter sunsets, which started this year in October. The Hunter’s Full Moon came up this year on a clear October night and was as large as ever.
(All images in this post were taken in Down East Maine during October 2019.)