Late Heat

Today is the first full day of autumn,but it came in the form of a heat wave.A few scattered trees and vines have started to turn,but mostly we have the summer appearance in the Mid-Atlantic region.Fall decorations such as indian corn are being sold,but it will be some weeks before we really see a transformation in nature.The nights must get closer to freezing.Until then,we will have to look carefully to detect the autumnal ways.

Nature Note:Presidential View

Driving north,every view is good.Autumn turns every stretch of land into a place of interest.Bold colors appear where,weeks before,nothing would have arrested the eye.The trees erase all tedium with their red,orange and gold leaves.Overhead,President Bush is flying home to Washington from Camp David,the presidential retreat in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains,in a formation of three U.S. Marine Corps helicopters.I wave at them;I couldn't just drive on,even though it's unlikely the President saw me wave.A little further north,a red-tailed hawk soars above the highway.