liquid amber leaves
Terri Webster Schrandt

Sunday Stills: Is it #Autumn Yet (or Spring)?

Another Equinox is upon us today; my, my, how time does fly!

Are you celebrating the Autumnal (fall) or the vernal (spring) equinox? Our local weathercaster calls this the beginning of astronomical Autumn here in the Northern Hemisphere. Some call the new season “meteorological,” in which each season begins on the first of each three-month quarter. Therefore, meteorological autumn started on September 1st.

late summer Fishing
Late Summer Fishing on Lake Spokane

Eastern Washington experienced a hotter summer than usual, breaking several records for the number of days in the 90s(F) and above. As we prepared to move here from hot Northern California in 2020, we invested in a heat pump for our new home that provides heat and air conditioning. I feel for the folks in our area who don’t have air conditioning in their homes.

It was warm enough to go kayaking on September 3rd with my friends. Only a hint of yellow.

2 women in kayaks
Floating with Friends

In any case, Autumn is officially here, according to the calendar. In real life? Hmmm, not so much.

Little Spokane River nature Trail
Little Spokane River Nature Trail

However, there are signs of Autumn everywhere. At least where I live. Our mid-September Fall colors aren’t spectacular yet, but they will be here soon! Is that the case where you live?

Neighborhood Trail
The Call of the Autumn Trail

While humans may be confused by the slow starts to our seasons, hummingbirds always seem to know when it’s time to migrate south from the cold north. I already put our hummer feeder away.

Closeup view of Hummingbird
Taken in Sacramento, Sept 2017

Soon, we can look forward to these views:

Autumn Golden glow
Seven ducks

Despite my yearning for autumn colors, nature provided a stunning surprise last week in the form of the northern lights. Who needs Autumn colors when one has this?

Northern Lights
Surprise Autumn Aurora

Hubby and I managed to capture each other during the light show. It’s not easy when all you see is black in your lens.

man in Northern lights
woman looking at northern lights
Me and the Northern Lights

First, I posed Hans in front of the night sky facing north. When I saw street lights in the distance, I aimed the phone lens upward and got the shot. Then we posed myself in front of my phone, and he shot several. I enable the night mode function when I use my Samsung S23 Ultra for night photography. You must stay perfectly still for 3 seconds while the camera keeps the aperture open to capture the image. FYI, in order to see the aurora (at our latitude), you have to take the shot and then see it in your camera gallery.

For now, we’ll have to experience “faux” autumn in these last September sunsets.

summer sunset over the lake

“Summer settled into the mist, a honeysuckle dream, sunlit bliss.” ~ Angie Weiland-Crosby

sunflowers at sunset
Equinox Sunset
gold paint swatch

Sunday Stills Photo Challenge Reminders

The Sunday Stills weekly-themed photo challenge is easy to join. You have all week to share and link your post. Please use your own original images, whether new or from your archives.

  • Remember to title your blog post a little differently than mine.
  • Please create a new post for the theme or link a recent one.
  • Entries for this theme can be posted all week.
  • Tag your post “Sunday Stills.”
  • Don’t forget to create a pingback to this post so that other participants can read your post.
  • I also recommend adding your post’s URL to the comments.

Sharing this week for Becky B’s Sevens, Cee’s FOTD, Hammad’s Weekend Sky, Johnbo’s Cellpic Sunday, and Lens-Artists: Walking the Neighborhood.

Don’t forget to check out Dawn’s Festival of Leaves Challenge beginning September 26th!

“Summer mourned her final days amidst her wildflowers and bouquets.” ~ Angie Weiland-Crosby

Dilapidated sunflowers

Autumn is “here” in the Northern Hemisphere, and spring is welcomed in the Southern Hemisphere! I can’t wait to see how you interpret this week’s theme! Creativity is encouraged, so please share your own photographs (old or new), poems, original short stories, and music inspired by the theme. Join me next week as we explore “ODDBALLS, WILD AND WEIRD.”

Autumn signature

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118 comments

  1. The end of summer is so close to fall, but so different. Everything is dying, but not yet pretty, and temperatures are still on the hot side. I’m not a fan of dead flowers, but that is what I have the most of at my house. Fall is definitely here this week in Prescott, not so much in Scottsdale where I’m heading in a couple of hours. So good to finally start catching up on my reading. I missed a lot!

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  4. Hi Terry,
    we are amazed that you can see the reflections aurora borealis that far south. We saw them regularly when lived a bit north of 60 degrees N in Sweden. Now we live at 56 degrees N and see them not that often.
    We like especially your first three pictures.
    Thanks for sharing
    The Fab Four of Cley
    🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

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  14. Terri,

    Love the pictures, particularly the northern lights. Not sure I understand why you can’t see them through your phone, but I probably won’t ever have to worry about that. Your paddling photo looks like a fun time. What creek were you on? Our colors don’t come out until mid-October, but we’ve had such a dry year, I’m afraid they’ll fall off before they turn. My contribution is an image from last year on the Cumberland Plateau northwest of Knoxville. The leaves were awesome up there. Enjoy your cooler weather…and those jeans.

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    • Thank you, Joe! What a lovely autumn pic you shared! Your area is the place for leaf-peeping! Hopefully autumn will cooperate for you.

      On my phone, any night image appears dark, almost black when aiming for the night sky. Once you take the shot, and click on the image, it suddenly appears on the phone in full color. Even in Spokane at our latitude, the aurora doesn’t show color, but rather as wispy, grayish clouds. We have to endure two more days of temps in the upper 80s, then fall will officially be here!

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  18. Isn’t it odd that you’ve had a record-breaking summer while, here in Wales, we’ve had our coolest summer since 2015, Terri? I’m not complaining about the cool summer, though. It reminded me very much of the summers of the 1970s when I was on the school summer holiday break. We had proper summers back then.

    And today, here in Wales, the Equinox happens when daylight and nighttime hours are equal. From tomorrow, nights will be longer than the days.

    While many of our plants and trees are already changing colour, the amazing autumnal colours will be at their best next month.

    I love the shots of you and Hans taking shots of the aurora. I’ve still to witness it. Hopefully, one day, Terri.

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    • The world turns and the seasons change, Hugh. I’m ever thankful for that because each season holds something wonderful. I’m watching our local news as our weather caster tells us about hot winds tomorrow with 80+F temps. Then abruptly the temps change the next day. Hard to believe we may see snow here by November 1st. Mid October is our peak for color. Can’t wait! Wow, your image is spectacular!

      We had fun messing around with the aurora pics! I’m glad we got to see it again. Have a great day!

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  21. Our hummingbirds are migrating. However, I saw one buzz by last week.
    Here some of the trees are starting to turn but it has felt like July with the hot temperatures.
    I enjoyed your kayak pictures and the aurora northern lights were gorgeous! Lucky you!
    I enjoyed seeing all your seasonal changes.
    Happy Fall y’All! 🍁🍂🍁

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  22. Hello! I love autumn, especially if it’s warm. Walking in such beautiful natural surroundings is very relaxing for me, so I always enjoy the weather as much as I can 🙂

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  27. Hi Terri, it’s lovely to see your autumn colours and your aurora shots are fab! I’d love to sere them one day! Now that I’m on the same side of the world as you I am feeling autumn in the air after leaving spring behind us. I’ve written a post trying to capture the differences between the two seasons as I’m currently experiencing it!

    https://debs-world.com/2024/09/23/betwixt-and-between-spring-in-australia-and-autumn-in-england-sundaystills/

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  33. Great selection of photos, and you managed to hit a lot of challenges. We see aurora year round here, but certainly, there are times when they are more active. Definitely fall colours here but still some warm++days ahead (27 forecast for Sept 25 😳)

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  34. Terri – your yellow leaves are beautiful as are the reflections of them. I like the up-close photo of your hummingbird too. I only saw one hummingbird here this Summer and it was a for a minute, then it flitted away. I doubt our hummers have left for their Winter vacation as yesterday it was 88 and very muggy. We are finally getting some rain right now, which has cooled us into the 70s – first rain all September and since the trees are stressed, the arborists say we likely will have subdued colors this Autumn. The Sumac leaves at the Park, however, were a vibrant red this morning and, had I not already had my post done, I’d have taken some photos to add to today’s post. Your Aurora pics are great; what a good idea taking each other’s photos in the foreground. The Sunflowers are gorgeous with the pinky background.

    Here is my post for your Challenge today: https://lindaschaubblog.net/2024/09/22/fall-infatuation/

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    • Thank you, Linda! Good to hear you have rain. We still have a few more days of mid-80s but the nights are cold, so no A/C needed. We had fun with the aurora images. I just found sunflower seeds on Amazon I’ve ordered for planting next year. I’ve been spoiled with the arrowleafs then the summer volunteers, but now I want more variety.

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      • A nice, gentle rain but they said maybe a storm (not severe) later. I was sitting here responding to a comment and the power went out for about five minutes – very strange as it’s not a storm. I like the idea of cooler weather – the Summer heat overstayed its welcome in my opinion. I always liked sunflowers – I grew some Russian Mammoth Sunflowers once and they were 10 feet tall.
        There will be a sea of sunflowers in your future.

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  37. A beautiful ode to autumn even if you don’t feel it quite yet Terri! Our poor earth gets a bit hotter every year. Here on Kiawah we are fortunate to have the ocean which keeps it a bit cooler than the inland SC areas. The calendar may say autumn but it’s definitely still summer in our world! I SO envy your northern lights which you captured beautifully, and felt terrible for those poor sunflowers! A wonderful post from start to finish.

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    • Thank you, Tina! I’m glad our themes worked so well together. Our local areas are ripe with beautiful gems of photo ops. Still a bit summer-like here especially this coming week. With the climate change, Eastern WA feels more extremes in heat and cold now. The northern lights were a wonderful bonus!

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  41. You have some great yellows and golds going there, Terri, and I know things will get more intense soon. Too bad your hummers don’t stick around, but I can see why they wouldn’t! And those aurora photos! They’re lovely.

    I’m definitely being creative this week since we don’t really have fall and spring here. Even summer and winter are mostly marked by differences in temperature and rainfall, nothing visual. So here’s my offering: https://grahamsisland.com/2024/09/22/seven-springs/

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  47. Beautiful images Terri! At least you’re getting a hint of colors turning. We should start seeing some in October. I think the hot summer has a lot to do with our changing of the seasons. I’m thinking we’ll have a warmer winter here.

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  48. I was so excited to see a hummingbird in a park here in San Francisco yesterday – a wonderful surprise. No sign of autumn yet in SF but suspect I will see some colour once I am up at Tahoe

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    • The Annas hummers stay around longer in Northern California. In fact they stayed all winter in Sacramento (no snow). If you drive to Tahoe up Hwy 50, you’re bound to see some gorgeous colors along the American River after Kyburz. If you go on Hwy 80, there should be color up by Donner Lake. I hope to visit Tahoe again some day. But where we live now reminds me of Tahoe.

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      • so wonderful to live somewhere that is as beautiful as Tahoe. And hopefully I will see more hummingbirds when I am in the Sacramento area as staying with friends slightly north of the city, and also in the Delta

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  49. Happy Equinox! I was lucky to have experienced a “normal” summer, Terri. We don’t have air-conditioning and haven’t needed it, but so much of the country was under extreme heat where air-conditioning is a matter of life and death. Amazing autumn photos, my friend. I love all the gold and my fav – the golden reflection on the water. Wowza. And great photos of the magenta sky! 🙂

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  51. Lovely photos as always. Although it takes a little longer for signs of autumn to show up in our part of Arizona, our overnight temperatures have finally cooled down and we’re able to sleep with the windows open. Fall colors won’t start appearing until mid-November and I am beyond ready.

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  52. You don’t have any Anna’s hanging around for the Winter Terri? I have about 5 this year.

    Next time you take shots of the Northern Lights, try with both of you and use the timer. You could sit in a chair to maintain stillness and both of your smiles would be on there!

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