It's Fall in Bermuda

Fall is in the air in Bermuda.  Maybe it's just the Canadian in me that makes me ultra sensitive to the changes, but I am using this morning off to reflect on the past summer and the summers past in Bermuda.  The sky is grey outside, the coffee is going down smoothly, Lexi is asleep on my memory foam pillow, the panthers have curled up on couches and kitty trees, and the music playlist is soft and slow, a playlist I made in memory of my niece Jaycena.  Taylor Swift is singing about fall in her song Tim McGraw as I go to percolate another cup of coffee.  She is heavy on my mind today.  Maybe it's the restless sleep I had with dreams of other people when I would have rather been dreaming of her.  Maybe it's the inquiry of why I sign off facebook status updates with iluj -- many people ask, I don't mind.  Or maybe the melancholy of fall just reminds me of that wound in the heart that never heals.  Most of Our Lady Peace's song Thief has played while I stare out the window.  It really is grey, but the rain has stopped.  There are so many good memories, and i have to remember I will never lose her completely.

Lady Antebellum has a perky beat that will get me back on track.  I first noticed that it was fall about 10 days ago.  The little signs started adding up.  The first sign was realizing that it was getting dark far too soon.  The sunsets began coming at 6:45pm, and disappearing a minute a day, making it harder to photograph them if i was working a late shift.  Next while driving to the beach to photograph some pink sand last week I noticed one lone tree in Astwood park that had yellow and red leaves.  That's when it hit me...it's fall.  I don't think there are very many deciduous trees on the island, but that one was there standing out like a beacon.

We are now onto Seether singing The Gift.  It's hard to type while I'm singing in my head.  It was only a few days after seeing that tree that I was driving home around 8 in the evening and felt the unmistakable chill of the air that grips us cyclists in the winter.  That's another sign that summer is over...expats going home to their snug little stone homes at an early evening.  Now onto Jamestown story singing In Loving Memory.  Definitely not getting a lot of typing done -- perhaps another sign of fall is a faltering focus.  But back to the chilly winter air.  If you look at the temperatures in Bermuda in the winter, they will deceptively remain between 15 and 25 degrees Celsius.  That really doesn't sound so bad.  However, being surrounded by water, and damp air with a high humidity, it actually feels much colder.  Bermuda does not report a wind chill, even when we have winter storms with gale force winds of that cold air hitting you on an open scooter in the driving rain.  It feels well below zero at that time, although nobody from North America ever believes this.  Then there is also that fact that when you arrive cold and wet to your limestone home you have to resort to fuzzy socks and an electric blanket as there is no central heating in Bermudian homes.  It may be getting a little chilly for a dress on the bike in the evenings, but we are still aways from the long weeks off fuzzy socks and blankets, fortunately.  That usually starts sometime between Boxing Day and New Year's, and hangs in steady until March.

Avril Lavigne has now given away to more Taylor Swift...Fifteen.  Two of Jaycena's favorite artists.  Wonder who she would be listening to today.  I can probably guess.

The second last sign of fall was going back on day shift and needing to be at work at 0800.  When the alarm went off the sun had not yet risen, which caught me by surprise after several weeks on later shifts.  Not quite the blackness that preceded dawn in the winter mornings in Northern Alberta...but a definite soft gray instead of a bright sunny day.  Even the panthers weren't interested in waking up and causing chaos on that morning.

As Memories by Within Temptation plays,  we get to the final sign of fall.  I was at a friend's going away barbecue on the weekend.  Not only did I keep looking at the time on my phone in the blackness at 8:30, but I zipped up my jacket before sunset.  This did prompt a few taunts from the other guests about me not being very brave about the cold for a Canadian.  That's when I realized we Canadians have a little bit better barometer and sense the coming cold a bit better than most.  Because here we are just a few days later, under a grey sky, and I just spotted another tree with red leaves out my window while Taylor Swift sings September.

The good news is that fall here occurs late here while winter is already looming at home.  It is much kinder and gentler guest here.  It also represents a time where events settle down a little bit on the island.  I might spend a bit more time at the gym, some much needed time at home, and even a much needed morning alone with old songs and bittersweet memories to ground me after a long and busy summer, to help me rest and reflect, and to gather strength for the winds of change that are picking up in my life again.

And so I close while Seether sings Broken, and see FM Static's Tonight is up next, followed by Natasha Bedingfield's Wild Horses.  A perfect fit.  iluj.  and you too JJ cat.

Jaycena, Forever in our hearts.