Signs of winter

Fall is about gone, and signs of approaching winter are everywhere. Motels and summer eating places proclaim: “Thanks for a great season” and “See you in the spring” along with the new “God Bless America.” (An adult drive-in movie lot near Mount Desert Island used to say, “Clothed for the winter,” but folks these days are more serious.)

With the fall foliage rapidly fading out and cold weather in sight, the summer crowd has mostly fled. That goes, too, for the hybrid Mainers whose license plates show that they escape the Maine income tax by spending six months plus one day in Florida.

People don’t bank their houses as much as they used to – laying brush along the foundations and streaming tar paper or plastic sheeting to keep out the cold. Still, you can see a lot of big piles of stove and furnace wood ready to combat the cold.

The maple leaves are mostly gone, and oak leaves have faded from their glorious bronze to a dull brown and will drop before long. But one fall treat remains. The hackmatacks, one of the few deciduous needled trees, have transformed themselves from green to a lovely gold, standing out against the deep green of the pines and spruces. Soon the hackmatacks will lose their needles and stand naked until spring. Winter is coming, with its mackinaws and mittens and ear flaps and snow tires and cozy kitchens, and once again we are ready for it.