Photo essay: Gathering

Listen! The wind is rising,
And the air is wild with leaves,
We have had our summer evenings,
Now for October eves!
— Humbert Wolfe

“The time of gathering is come,” the Old Farmer’s Almanac says, “and the farmer will soon know to what account he has labored through the long seasons of spring and summer.” Likewise, on campus we pause to weigh our fast-waning year, admiring the peaking colors from the top of Observatory Hill or even the span over Campus Drive on a football Saturday. Any day above 50 degrees is a chance for one more walk along the lakeshore path, an impromptu percussion performance under the molting oaks or a stroll under a Bascom portico.

Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day:
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
— Emily Brontë

With no Brontës among its contributors, the Old Farmer’s Almanac suggests the autumn forecast in grade-school rhyme: “Cover your keister; another Nor’easter!” Fifty-eight days until winter.

Photos: Jeff Miller, Michael Forster Rothbart