Beach Treasure: When Did Autumn Arrive?

I've spent the last month trying to wrap up everything that I started in the spring and assumed I'd have finished long before summer came to an end. I've spent the last several weeks feeling autumn was closing in fast and that I needed to pick up the speed. In the last few days I've come to the realization that autumn is going to arrive before I finished anything I wanted to have finished.

But what I hadn't realized yet was that somehow autumn is already here. Yeah, I know, I know. School started. Summer clothes are on clearance racks everywhere. Even I, Menopause Heated Woman, decided it's too cold to keep the windows open at night. (Okay, maybe one window in the bedroom open just a sliver.) Pumpkin Spice Lattes at Starbucks. Real pumpkins stacked in front of the supermarket. There was an equinox there a week or so ago. All clues that an ordinary person might have picked up on before now.

Yesterday I drove past a tree and did a double take - was that a bit of gold mixed in with the green leaves? Today I looked across the street and saw another tree aflame in red and orange. It finally sunk in - autumn isn't bearing down on us, it's zoomed past weeks ago and I didn't notice.

I've got to get back to my long To Do list but I felt badly that I haven't been posting lately. So, I thought I'd share a few photographs I took today, proof of autumn's arrival.