James Hrynyshyn
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Sep 21/01) - Autumn makes its official return to Planet Earth tomorrow at 5:04 p.m. precisely.

'Bout time, too, considering the first windshield-scraping frost of the year materialized four mornings earlier.

Ruggin' up for winter: Corey Maund tops up his family's wood supply. Their Old Town home is now ready for whatever the elements throw their way. - James Hrynyshyn/NNSL photo

For denizens of a land of extremes, it can be argued that we Yellowknifers pay far too little attention to this most fleeting of seasons, despite its rare character of balance and best-of-both-worlds variety.

Our oversight is understandable. At times, it seems the events and elements that define the fall race past in a matter of days. Before you know it, houseboaters are walking home from work.

This past week alone, for example, winter wood supplies showed up on front and back yards, the fires of foliage appear to have reached their peak a little earlier than usual thanks to the lingering succulence from a summer of rain, and the aurora borealis began to burn early enough to be seen before the kids' bed-time.

Nothing autumnal seems to linger this far north.

The precise period that defines the beginning of the season, the equinox, is even more short-lived. Technically, it marks the infinitesimally brief moment at which the Earth reaches the half-way point between its nearest and furthest approaches to the sun.

But this year it could be worth finding some spare hours to absorb the flavours of the nature's recycling engine.

So far, at least, the weather has been better than agreeable. The venerable if suspiciously romantic Farmer's Almanac promises near-normal conditions for the rest of September and October. (Word of warning: the Almanac also says that bell-bottoms are due for another resurgence in popularity.)

Slightly more conventional meteorologists at the Weather Network are also calling for normal temperatures, and even dismissing the consequences of another impending El Nino.

"Such a system would have little effect on our day-to-day weather," says the network's chief cloud-watcher, Ron Bianchi. Of course, they always say things like that, don't they?

Still, there is no good reason not to make time for one more hikes out to Cameron Falls or maybe even Big Hill Lake -- if you can find the orange trail-marking slash tape among the all reds and golds of the turning leaves, that is.