Rocktober - On & Off Earth

Rocktober - On & Off Earth

October, the gateway to Fall, gets started looking much like summer. Trees, farms and lawns, after three wet months, remain lush and green but late hay harvests and hints of color in the forest tell a tale of pending change. The dogwoods are the first to turn up the color, both with leaves and berries. Sassafras and tupelos (black gum) are quick to join in and dump the green chlorophyll, letting the background reds and yellows shine through.

October’s cooler temperatures and daily loss of sunlight causes leaves, the energy production centers for trees, to be less productive and a less productive leaf has got to go. By month’s end, the maples and poplars will have joined into the, dump the green, let the other colors shine, display that is Fall. Almost twelve hours of daylight at the start of the month dwindles to barely ten and a half by Halloween.

The fact that our part of the world remains green is a direct result of the one requirement for all life on planet Earth: water. With more rain in the last three months than in the first half of 2026, our ‘extreme’ placement on the state drought map is no more! Lake Anna, still almost two feet below full pool, is a daily reminder for those on that side of the county that we are not completely out of the drought zone. My barely moving creek reminds me.

While the Atlantic has yet to see a storm worthy of hurricane status, the pool of extremely warm water piled up in the eastern Pacific (El Niño) has spawned storm after storm in that vast ocean. We live on a large planet with very local issues but it is a mostly closed yet very interconnected system where what happens in any one place stirs changes globally. Hurricane season doesn’t end until November 30th, October hurricanes can be doozies!

Longer nights and cooler temperatures make for much more comfortable off Earth sky gazing but this October’s evening eye treats are limited. Saturn is at opposition, directly behind Earth from the sun on the 4th, the only planet in the evening sky all month. 

Venus catches Earth in the round-the-sun derby by mid-month, ending its run as the Evening Star. Shining steadily (no twinkle), Jupiter and Mars are easy to see in the southeast before dawn. Venus joins those planets, to reign as the Morning Star for the rest of 2026 and much of ’27 but won’t likely be visible until Halloween. The sun takes all month to drift through the stars of Virgo. The Full Hunter’s Moon is on the 26th.

Rocktober (it had to be said), certainly the best month of the Autumn season, if not the entire year, offers pleasant temperatures, lovely views and a much reduced population of biting insects and slithering critters. I will miss the little hummers slurping sugar water outside my window but with a frost less and less likely in October they seem to be lingering later each year. A new crew of birds, after summering in the far north, is beginning to arrive, they, too,  seeming to linger longer each year to enjoy the beauty of October, of Fall, in Virginia.

The reality of Fall just hit me in the eyes and ears; the lower sun angle just drove me out of my summer writing spot as a giant chestnut oak acorn boinked against the window! October is here, get out there, life is grand!! Today On Earth!!