Gemma Seymour: Behind us? It just started!
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Kris Alden: When it's dark at 5 p.m.
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Sallyanne Kinoy: That furious late October rainstorm that brings down the last of the leaves.
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Leslie Sullivan Sachs: Time change: walking home from work in the dark.
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Judy McGee: When I have to plug my heat tape in.
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Tom Buchanan: When the first ski mountain opens for real (not a gimmick opening, like weekends only or a one-day special).
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Chris Campany: Mississippi State plays (and hopefully beats) Ole Miss in the Egg Bowl. That caps off the Thanksgiving holiday, and autumn, for me.
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Ellen Schwartz: Frozen ground. Holding on to the smell in the air.
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Diana Lischer-Goodband: I am still having chicks hatching out in the hay loft, my monkshood is still blooming, wild asters are still blooming in the fields, there is still corn at Walker Farm, the geese are chevroning across the sky....
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Ken Bloom: Heavy, cold rain taking down the last of the leaves in the trees.
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Nancy Braus: Too dark and too cold to bike.
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Patricia Austin: Deep sparkling night skies.
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Fran Lynggaard Hansen: I experience the same seasons as Vermont here in Armenia, even though the weather is a bit milder. I hang on to the smells: squash roasting with maple syrup in my kitchen, the cinnamon of apple pies in the oven, the fresh scent of dried leaves on the wind, the warmth of a heavy sweater.
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Deborah Pell Yaffee: The fact that we turned on our electric toilet seat today.
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Deborah Lowery: A certain aspect in the air, bookmarked by the air of summer and the air of winter. ☺
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Dianne Howard: Nighttime quiet because the peepers and night bugs have gone into invernal hibernation. I treasure the way sunbeams filter through the light. The memory of burning raked leaves at the curb. The smokey, purple haze wafting into the autumn air.
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Jessica Callahan Gelter: When you breathe deeply to take in the delicious, sweet smell of gently decomposing leaves and the wood smoke-tinted gentle fall breeze - only to have your nostril hairs freeze together. Then you know the season's passed and we're on to the cold dark of winter.
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Lynn Barrett: When the leaves are gone and I have to turn on the heat, bring the plants in, and store the deck furniture away.
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Tim Johnson Arsenault: The day after Halloween.
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Bette Crawford: The loss of the magical colors - but I know they will return! I love the seasons here in the great state of Vermont!
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Vivi Mannuzza: The crack of leafless tree limbs and the perfume of chimney smoke. Freshness of laundry dried on a clothes line.
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Michael Logerfo: Fall is over once I can drive without getting stuck behind out-of-state plates doing 20 below the speed limit.
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Daniel Popowich: When the Green Mountain Mummers have danced and beat the drum.
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Charlene Wakefield: When I've finished raking all the leaves! But does that mean I'm in charge of the end of fall and can stretch it beyond its limits using procrastination?