Pine Needles

Are those ... pine needles? Yup, strewn across the path that rings the Hollywood Reservoir were pine needles.

When I think of sun-drenched Los Angeles, pine needles don't often come to mind. I'm too distracted by the towering palm trees and the fragrance of lemons to give conifers much thought. But this weekend my hiking boots strode across a pillow of pine needles. Fall had somehow arrived. 

The autumnal equinox occurred this past week, the moment in our sun's orbit when its light shines directly on the equator. This occurrence triggers a shift in our atmosphere, at least here in the northern hemisphere, as our days grow shorter and our nights grow longer.

Rush into the sunshine I urge you, before you swaddle yourself in corduroy, and cinnamon, and hunker down with a stack of books. The detritus of nature's waning life is already upon us.

"I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house." - Nathaniel Hawthorne