A weekly reflection on life in academia.
Ann Arbor in the fall is beautiful. It’s possibly the closest I’ve come to an English Autumn since arriving in the US nearly eleven years ago. Walking the dog the other morning, there was a definite scent of damp, decaying leaf-litter in the air; a scent sharply reminiscent of afternoon strolls through autumnal woods back home, with a slight nip in the air and the promise of tea and crumpets to come. For some reason, the scent was never quite the same in Northern Virginia or Ohio – probably something to do with needing the right combination of dampness, temperature and flora.
I had a similar flash of nostalgia walking across the University’s damp, gray campus earlier this week. In the late afternoon drizzle, students were hurrying between classes under dripping trees touched with fall colors – it was a scene that brought back vivid memories of undergrad days at Birmingham University 25 years ago.
Forget the sun, the warmth, the stunning blaze of fall colors that people usually associate with the best of an American Fall – what make Autumn for me is a dampness in the air perfused with the smells of gentle decay, and subtle fall colors artfully enhanced by light rain at the tail end of a gray day. I think it’s probably a genetic predisposition that’s evolved in response to the British climate – but it means I’m right at home here.
Of course, people tell me that this weather won’t last – just round the corner they say are months of flesh-stripping cold and days so gray they suck the color out of life itself. That may be. But for now, I’m quite happy enjoying this little slice of England, in blissful denial of what’s to come.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Shouldn’t you be advocating or updating methodologies for risk management!
What is this poetic nonsense!
(humorously)
A mere aberration, probably brought on by inadequate risk management
Risk management comes back into play with the snow and ice. Wet leaves, not so much.
Ha – there was a classic case years ago in the UK where trains were suspended, allegedly because of dangerous “leaves on the line”. The rail service has never lived it down!