September 24

The fallow hill between the farm and the college is at its most beautiful now. It is a small knoll really, unused in years past for cultivated growth, because it is likely a mass of bedrock just underneath the topsoil, and it best serves as a break between what used to be the flats below and the home above.

Seen from an easterly approach, the hill displays its fall colors in full measure now, Earthy tones that are warm and simply autumn like. The top is largely quake grass and crab, both showing purple hues hastened by the cool nights that quickly rob the summer grasses of their chlorophyll. Midway down is Timothy and Fox grass, which are yellowing and tall, swaying in the breeze in uniform waves that resemble puffs of wind that move across open water. Below them, where the neglected two-track cuts across where there is moister ground, green grasses of some sort still thrive.

From only a short distance away, it’s easy to imagine this small hill as some far off majestic peak, where the distant bands of color represent changes in the alpine zones. Up close, the grasses each have their own character, and it is pleasant to traverse the hill, seeing the color and hearing the sound of the wind rustling in the sere blades.