One of the Stinkman family visited again last night, and today is the equinox. 🍂

First day of autumn. The air carries a different weight, cool and slightly brittle at the edges, as if the world has been rinsed clean overnight and set out to dry. Shadows feel longer, stretching with more confidence than the summer ones. A light wind tugged at the trees this morning, and a few early leaves gave in to the season, drifting down like trial balloons for what’s coming.

Coffee on the porch was accompanied by the quiet rustle of squirrels in the hedge, busily shuffling acorns into secret places. A crow cawed overhead, loud and insistent, the voice of some small herald announcing that the season has turned. I always feel that shift in my bones before I can name it, like the year has quietly opened a new chapter.

The backyard camera caught one of the skunk kids at about 4 this morning, just a brief wander under the dim glow, nosing through the grass in search of earthworms. A quiet little reminder that the yard has its own rhythms and its own calendar, separate but in tune with mine.

I walked out back and could almost smell woodsmoke that wasn’t there yet, only the promise of it. The grass is damp in a way that suggests cooler nights, a thin thread of fog hanging in the low ground just after sunrise.

It feels like an invitation. Time to lean into the rhythm of sweaters, early dusks, and lantern light. Autumn begins not with a bang, but with a quiet nod, the softest of thresholds.

#firstdayofautumn #roanokeva #backyardzoo #skunk #seasonschange