Autumn Equinox - Nature Catches It's Breathe

The Autumn Equinox arrived on Saturday, September 22nd this year poised in balance between day and night.  It is as if nature held it's breath for one brief moment before turning the year's wheel towards the end of the harvest and winter's arrival.  Toronto grows crisp and chilly with a cutting wind that seems to fly across Lake Ontario before whooshing by pedestrians going home in the early dusk of the longer evenings.  St. Lawrence Market groans with pumpkins, squash and other late harvest vegetables while butchers prepare turkeys and hams for Thanksgiving Day feasts.  Mums, zinnias and sunflowers are embraced by the busy shoppers going home with their harvest treasures.  Leaves begin to turn toasty brown, orange and deep red, falling one by one to the ground.  Children wearing knitted hat and gloves push the leaves into piles, then jumping with peals of laughter into them.   Dogs don sweaters, squirrels bury acorns and Halloween is just around the corner.  Autumn has arrived in Toronto, version 2012.