October followed our summer’s trend: It was warmer and wetter than average. The month’s signature features, the fall colors, were slightly below average — which means that they still were beautiful.
Before the end of the month, the wooded trails were leafy carpets that crunched with each footstep.
The many rainstorms swelled moss-banked streams and filled marsh ponds to the brim. The excess water and fallen leaves, however, also at times filled culverts; small floods damaged gravel roads and driveways.
The ample rain produced bumper crops of Mushrooms, Beach Rose hips, and wild apples.
Our fields turned dark with white sprinkles of dying Queen Anne’s Lace and Daisy Fleabane. Those that had not been given their fall cuts in September were mowed in October.
October is when our White-Tailed Deer get their lush, winter-woods-colored coats. This year’s coat change may have been premature, considering the warmth of the month. That warmth has kept Chipmunks awake, Meadowhawk Dragonflies and their gnat and mosquito food in the air, and Great Blue Herons still hanging around.
Despite the warm weather, some of our fiishermen (male and female) began pulling their lobster traps out of the water in October and trailoring them to winter storage. But many fished on, even though the harvest was less than expected. All or virtually all recreational boats, however, were stored before the end of the month.
The October full moon is the Hunter’s Moon and usually is spectacular. It did not disappoint this year.
Of course, October is the Halloween month. It’s celebrated annually by the Brooklin School with a march of its costumed students and staff down Bay Road, with protective Town fire trucks in front and in back.
Finally, October here is when the sunsets and their afterglows can become pumpkin orange and, next month, fiery red.
(All above images were taken in Down East Maine during October, 2021.)