Fog permitting, Orion, the hunter constellation, will generate an easily viewed meteor shower that peaks on Friday, Oct. 21. The constellation rises after 10 p.m. in the southeastern sky and can be recognized by the three stars in a row that make up Orion’s belt. The shower peaks with about 20 meteors per hour and will continue through Nov. 7. Next week, the new moon of Oct. 25 brings some midday six-foot-plus high tides.
You may hear thumping and thudding as bay nuts, looking like miniature purple eggplants, and the first buckeyes, which are heavier and a little noisier, drop everywhere. There is always a flurry of activity at this time of year as deer scramble to feast and bulk up on acorns before winter. Woodpeckers and squirrels are also stashing nuts to carry them through the season.
Plenty of bright orange rose hips—the seed pods of wild roses—may be seen, while red alder trees, often seen in riparian habitats along creeks, are developing their miniature brown cones. These trees’ pale grey-colored bark often reminds me of their cousins, the aspens of the western mountains and their eastern relations, birch trees.