November is one of my favorite months. And it doesn’t matter whether it’s back home in Massachusetts or here in the Valley of the Sun, it is a special time of year in both places. Back home, November is a transitional month – the early part bright and shimmering, the clinging leaves of October waiting for that first cold wet gale that strips the trees bare; the latter part of the month gray and chilly, waiting for that first snowfall that inevitably puts a final stamp on autumn. The clocks go back early in the month, leaving folks a commute home from work in the dark.

I took the picture above up in Portsmouth in a state forest just off the salt marshes that wind their way down the coat between Portsmouth and Hampton Beach. You wouldn’t know it from the pic, but if you keep walking less than ten minutes ahead you’ll walk right onto Route 1! The forest is a place I like to visit whenever I’m back home, especially in the fall. In the warmth of a fall afternoon you could still hear plenty of crickets and chickadees and squirrels and chipmunks rusting under the fallen leaves.

Here in the Valley, we don’t turn our clocks back and the days are refreshingly warm. This year, the heat of summer was slow to retreat – we ought to be in the 70s by now but most days have seen us in the mid-80s. The nights have cooled down nicely, though, and it’s great to have the bedroom window open even if the room gets cool with the nights dropping into the low 60s by dawn. This time of year, the electric blue skies of summer are replaced by days where the sky is oftentimes filled with high clouds from storm systems passing far to our north that shimmer beneath a sun that still can show its teeth in the late afternoon. Like in Florida, November is a big month for the snowbirds, so the golf courses are just opening up now after being closed for weeks after the change from summer Bermuda grass to winter rye.

Typically, I’m spending my November weekends doing all sorts of cleanup out back after all the dirt and dust of the monsoon season, but work has been extra demanding and my to-do list is a mile long. But there are some minor tweaks I’ve been making with my golf swing that I really like, and with a weekend trip to Vegas coming up in three weeks I want to get some golf work and play in before that time. Which is OK, December around here is also a great month for working outside.