Autumn is one of my favorite seasons with its beautiful colors…I live in the White Mountains, a place known for beautiful, colorful falls…In fact we have so many people visiting during that season, that we call them “the leaf peepers”. They come here to admire bright red, yellow, purple and gold colors.Polish autumn has more subtle colors – lot’s of yellow, gold and orange.

Polish autumn starts in September. On the September 1st the sun rises around 4.46 a.m. and goes down around 6.24 p.m. a day lasts for about 13 and half an hour. On the 30th of September, sun rise is around 5.35 a.m. and sun set around 5.35 p.m. during this month a day’s length shortens at over 1.5 hour. On the 23rd of this month the number of day and night hours equal and this date is considered to be the first day of the calendar autumn/fall.

September (wrzesień) is usually beautiful, sunny and warm in Poland. The nights become colder (zimniejsze) and at the end of the month it is not that rare to experience early morning slight ground frost (mróz).

This is also the time for apple picking (zbieranie jabłek)! I grew up on the fruit farm, so I know everything about it:) My parents were growing about 40 different types of apples. The earliest ones were ready to pick in August, but most of them were ripe (dojrzałe) in September. Apple picking started in “full speed” then and we were done around November 1st.

During October (październik) a total change of colors takes place. Only coniferous trees (drzewa iglaste) retain their green color, other than that, the green disappears and gives place to bronze, orange and yellow tones which create unique autumn aura of beautiful “Polish golden autumn” –“Złota Polska jesień “, especially during sunny weather. The period of leaves’ fall is prolonged in time, as different species loose their leaves at different times. Life in water also becomes still, as more and more often ground frosts cover the water surface of smaller reservoirs with thin layer of ice.

In November fauna and flora period of vegetation is almost totally ended. On “late” bushes and trees, such as pines (sosny), junipers (jałowce), spruces (świerki) last seeds ripe; few trees carry leaves, and there are usually dried and brownish. Field works cease. The last bird – the skylark (skowronek) – leaves Poland for warmer countries. All nature in the middle of the month is usually prepared for the winter season.

One more thing I remember is making little creatures from kasztany (chestnuts) and  żołędzie (acorns) using zapałki (matches). I still do it with my daughter…

Do następnego razu… (Till next time…)