We’ve had some deliciously airish weather move into southern Appalachia. This morning when I got up it was 45 degrees. When I headed out to set the chickens free and feed them it felt amazing.
The forecast for the next week or so shows morning temps in the 40s with highs in the 70s. Sounds like near perfect weather to me.
I love all the seasons equally, but by the end of one I’m always ready for the next one. The Deer Hunter isn’t a fan of summer heat so we’re coming up on the time of the year he likes best.
airish adjective
1 Of the weather: cool, fresh, breezy.
c1959 Weals Hillbilly Dict 2 = drafty, breezy, cool. “Shet the door. It feels sorta airish in here.” 1972-73 Pederson et al. LAGS = a little chilly, pleasantly cool (Cocke Co Tn, Sevier Co TN). 1974 Fink Bits Mt Speech 1 = windy, cool. “Hit’s plumb airish out.” 1996-97 Montgomery Coll. The night feels a bit airish (Brown); It was an awful airish day, wasn’t it? (Cardwell).
—Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English
Last night’s video: Alex Stewart Portrait of a Pioneer 19.
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Fall was always my favorite season when I lived “in the holler”; loved the airish mornings, the change of colors, and the change in the length of our days. I also knew that there would be much colder times, hard freeze’s, and likely snow “down the road” and being snowed in for a day or two. And I still appreciated that first airish breeze. As a Florida transplant, it still will be quite awhile till we experience any refreshing cooler mornings. In the meantime, rather than enjoying that first cooldown from summer, we a preparing for a different weather change named “Ian” who may or may not bring lots of strong wind and rain. But, those “airish times and memories in the holler” still remain and I smile …..,
We’ve had our first frost this week, up in CNY. Not really ready for it. Wasn’t wide spread, so it didn’t get the tomatoes. I love fall! Got married on Oct. 16th, 19 years ago, with the leaves in peak color. But it was SO windy, cold, & spitting rain we couldn’t get very pretty pictures outside. The wind was blowing my veil across my face & everyone was shivering. It had been beautiful all that week, but not THAT day. Getting ready for our fall cider making party & alot of my friends’ & familys birthdays are in the fall. So, many fun activities to look forward to. I love the frosty chill in the air when I go to close up the barn for the night & watching the moon rise. We love the excitement of whitetail deer season (which opens this Tues). Everyone is looking out the windows for bucks, in order to report to the 2 household hunters. Trying to encourage our 15 yr old to sit in her blind, independently this year. Fall is the best!
Jealous of the ‘cool comments’ here! Y’all send some of that airish air to Oklahoma, please. It’s still in the 90s here and humid like it was in August.
Finally, fall is in the air! It was chilly this morning with lows in the 40’s last night and right now it’s 67. I do love this time of the year, but we sure could use a good soaking rain. Of all the seasons, fall is my favorite! Have a blessed Saturday everyone!!
Fall is my favorite season. We are planning a trip to the Boone area soon. I live where the NC coast is about 2 hours and the NC mountains about 4 hours. We head for the mountains every chance we get! Happy Fall!!!Take care and God bless ❣️
I have been catching up on your Fall posts here and on you tube that I missed out on the past couple of days. Fall is my favorite time of the year! So glad it is here!!! I am enjoying every little thing about it – except the spiders and flies wanting to come into my house to hide from the cooler air now. Thank you for your wonderful posts, Tipper!!
Donna. : )
It’s so nice and cool today. I like to look up in the trees with the blue sky as a backdrop, and see the green leaves mixed along with the red leaves drifting down to the ground all over our place. It’s certainly airish today here. I love it! It makes me want to “scrooch up” to my hubby! Have you ever heard of the expression “Ooooshie- Boooshie ! I probably spelled it wrong but it’s an expression I’ve heard most of my life. Just two more descriptions of our wonderful, expressive Appalachian language! Aren’t we well blessed and highly favored by our wonderful Heavenly Father!!!
Barbara-I’ve heard oooshie my whole life to mean its really cold, but never the boooshie part 🙂 Thank you for sharing that!
We’ve had airish temps here in Indiana as well! I love working outside when the temps don’t rise above 80. Makes tearing the garden down and weeding the flower beds easier. And we finally found our yearly Yellowjacket nest in the front yard, so had to take care of that this past week. I’m surprised that my husband didn’t get stung when mowing the grass. This time we found it because a raccoon dug part of the nest up and left a pretty big hole in the yard. I almost stepped on the comb that was in the yard and the bees were hovering around it. Part of the nest was still pretty deep underground so we had to deploy different methods to get rid of the remaining nest. I hate to kill beneficial insects, but their location was not in the best interests for them or us.
It’s airish here in flat country this morning and I love it.
It looks like we all agree fall is finally come! Stanford’s poem says what all of us that garden feel. After such an extremely hot summer in my part of NC, I was happy to have the airish mornings!
Happy Fall Y’all!
We are enjoying delicious cool mornings here in west central Missouri. We are still short on rain, but at least the temperatures are more tolerable than the awful heat we’ve had all summer. The squirrels are rushing around and the foliage has a yellow tint. Mums are for sale at the grocery store. My favorite time of year!
I felt it this morning for the first time this summer/fall. It was like receiving a gift, a really cool gift. LOL Another blog announced the first day of autumn by celebrating with a cup of tea, outside, enjoying the moment after a brutal summer of heat. I thought that was a great idea and will do the same today celebrating Harvest & 1st Airish Day.
We’re just over the state line from yall and we’re having the same delicious temps. Airish this week but Thursday might be sopping from that hurricane Ian headed our way.
My daughter used to say it was a toss-up between me and her husband which one hates fall worse. It’s me, no toss-up needed.
Speaking of fall, each year about this time I re-read a poem by John Madson, a Missouri outdoor writer, titled “A Boy in the Woods.” It is about a young squirrel hunter who sometimes doesn’t take the time to spot the bushytails in the hickory trees, but in his quest he unknowingly connects with the spirits of mountain men, “the buckskin dead”, who once roamed the woods, looking for game, just as he was doing. That poem speaks to me about my boyhood in the foothills of the mountains, squirrel hunting with a trusty Revelation .22 my brother bought at the Western Auto Store. That poem might be online. I haven’t searched.
Yes, 51°F here in the GA foothills thus morning. Definitely fall and right on time. Had a fierce dry cold front wind Thursday evening just before dark, blew 35-40 mph and I could see rain across the road at my neighbors but didn’t even get us damp. But it brought the cool.anyway. I know my fall garden plants are loving it. The morning glory stayed open until about dinner time yesterday.
I’ve been seeing dibs and dabs of fall color here and there; sour wood on the road cuts, Virginia creeper, sumac. And the goldenrod bloom is fully open now. Makes me want to find a trail through a weedy, briery field just to look at the flowers.
Sorry to hear you are so dry Randy. I know the feeling. Hope you don’t have an especially strong need for rain. Here in GA there is a dry strip that runs with the mountains but about ten air miles off of them to the south. Along the foot of the mountains there is a wet streak. I have watched on radar our pastor get rain many times when we never got a drop. Lord bless the poor farmers.
We clean, plow, disk and hoe
We water, weed and watch our crops grow
Then we gather and preserve the bounty of our labor
That we will soon savor
Because we have learned just as the ones before us
That the seasons come, and the seasons go
Airish in north Alabama and dry
Look at the orange and beautiful wildflower “lady slippers!” I always like to see her bloom! When the first of September came, the sunshine showed up most every day after it rained miserably all summer. Oh the irony of it all!!! The past few mornings it’s been a airish here too- Lows in 40’s and high in mid 60s. I’m holding out on turning heat on just yet in the morning. I bet Deer Hunter is thinking about deer hunting. I’d like to go with him and learn some things I would!!! The best thing would be putting venison in jars and jerky and roasts!!! Yum!!! Remember these type days when you were little? I recall it was airish in the mornings so I needed a coat. By 3:00 or so it was warm and I often “forgot” my coat because I didn’t want to carry it. That lead to grand inquisitions and tongue lashings but I did not care… every year for years I did the exact same thing…I remember rounding the corner to see home agleeming close by!!!
Yes it feels good to me this morning in Greenville County, SC. It is 46 degrees at my home with a predicted high of around 80. This same predicted high for next two days and then 70’s for next week with the low’s in the 50’s. We are having beautiful sunny weather, but we need rain, I plowed some this week and the ground was like talcum powder. We have had just a little over 11/2 inch in the last 5 weeks and it has been hot and dry all summer. Other areas have had more rain. If you compare my area to a doughnut, we would be the hole in the center- rain around us but none in the center. During Labor Day weekend the 3 corners- SC, NC and GA had over 12 inches in 2 days with some flooding. I don’t want anything like, but I do wish for a good soaking rain. Fall and fall weather is my favorite time of the year.
God did Bless Alex and from what you have read, he knew it. Seems he was a Godly man even though he had his round-about way of showing it. I know you are near the end of the book, and I am already looking forward to the next one. As far as the ‘airish’ morning, it is a balmy 63 here in upstate Florida. I am so looking forward to the high being less than 88 to 99 in the afternoon. You know, my MIL used to say, God gives us what he wants us to have, and I really think about that every day. I am with the Deer Hunter with fall upon us…joyous days are ahead. Even though I don’t do ‘deer meat’ wishing him luck. God Bless
I can feel it in the air, fall is upon us. I love that we have the full four seasons here in the mountains and they are each glorious! The air is cool and crisp!
It is a mite airish here on the Cumberland Plateau this morning. I’m loving it! The next week or so looks to be the same.