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October 2016

There’s something rotten in the state of Denmark, and though Rose Nylund would claim that it’s their cheese, it’s actually something that goes well with cheese: the apple. Torn from their boughs, these fruits have fallen to the forest floor and begun their transformation back to the place from which they came. Decay and decomposition. Seems nasty and gross to some, but it’s the very source of life again. There is beauty here too, if you can bend your mind a different way.

I stumbled upon these fallen soldiers while walking through a secluded corner of Ogunquit. They reminded me of fall days when I would walk home from school and pause beneath a few pine trees, nestling into the rust-colored needles warm from the sun and plucking a few pine-cones to decorate later. I’d sit there in that sublime patch of autumn and retrieve an apple I’d saved from lunch, biting into the crunchy sweetness and peering out from the edge of the forest.

The harvest is at hand, and the spicy tones of grains and gourds fall upon the earth like little globes of ridged amber baubles. Indian corn, probably politically incorrectly-monikered at this point, makes a striking accent with its rows of multi-colored kernels, hinting at a Thanksgiving to come, and the coziest time of the year. Our reluctance to head onto the path for winter is eased by such scenes, and fall will always carry her own enchantments.

Vines of invasive bittersweet, beautiful but dangerous, open their shiny yellow orbs to reveal bright red hearts. They sing their tempting siren song to the birds, who, entranced by such color in a sea of dying leaves, swoop in and carry the seeds to further the invasive destruction of this fast-growing vine. There is a price to pay for such prettiness.

Fall hints coldly, and grandly, at the fiery end to the growing season. It will not go quietly into the winter night, and why should it when there is still so much color and texture to display? Such as in these gourds, whose surface is a mottled dream of ridges and bumps, as strange and delightful to the hand as it is to the eye.

Nature is a skilled architect, adept at crafting vehicles who purpose sometimes seems to be beauty alone. That has always been purpose enough.

Even the most striking autumn color is doomed to fade. Sometimes that happens overnight, with a harsh biting frost, but more often it happens in slower and less definitive fashion, as in the way the sky softens, and wispy clouds filter the light. It’s a very subtle change, and one might miss it when presented with a rose thrillingly defying the edge of the ocean, but if you look closely you will detect it.

There is a more nuanced beauty at work when the change happens, delicate gradations and misty renderings as a gauze descended like the fog, and on our final full day in the seaside town, the rain fell steadily, revealing a murky melancholy that was not wholly unwelcome. After a summer of sun, it’s only fair. Fitting too, as an afternoon nap is a luxury to be indulged while on vacation, and you don’t feel like you’re missing as much when it’s raining.

Before that, however, we got in a walk along the Marginal Way. The colors were a comfort – gentle and harmonious – in the way that nature manages to put forth the most pleasing palette seemingly without the slightest effort.

We finish with a lunch in Perkins Cove. Though the days are turning gray, they are doing so in thrilling fashion. Fall can be charming, and we are already under its spell.

Marking our 16^th fall in Ogunquit, this year found us embracing some old favorites on their way out, and putting our official vacation season to sleep for the year. I’ve got a couple trips coming up, but our Columbus Day weekend in Maine is when we say good-bye to the majority of sunny days. It’s a bittersweet trip, but when you go in knowing that, it makes things a little more precious. We hold them a little dearer and closer to the heart.

The sea – constant and powerful, beautiful and devastating – would shout out in roaring waves. Foaming at the mouth, it would shoot its spray into the air and onto the rocky outcroppings. That would come later. For now, it gently lapped at the shore, an innocent young canine playing with gentle yet insistent purpose.