By Melinda Lane Hedgecoth / Chronicle contributor
Sun-washed mountains, aglow in autumn’s blazing kiss, bask in scarlet splendor ‘neath a dome of azure blue. Tawny oaks dance in russet harmony with scarlet-tressed maples both vying for best-dressed honors with handsome neighbor and hardwood cousin, the hickory, whose own golden visage gleams a worthy welcome! A tapestried panorama unfolds before us as it cascades to the valley floor, revealing in its wake an aura of multi-faceted wonder that blankets the land in nature’s sweet refrain…
Red-berried sumacs and dogwoods blaze a fiery trail of bounty for all partakers in their midst, while plump, grey squirrels scamper and scurry in their bid to cache their own precious horde! Hickory smoke permeates the air in hearty, welcome effect thus heralding fall’s arrival against this hint of winter’s chill.
Cornstalks rustle quietly ‘neath a glowing harvest moon, while one lone scarecrow maintains his lonely vigil over the garden that’s already laid by. Fat, orange pumpkins peep cautiously from their withering, trailing vines, while juicy red and yellow apples dangle heavily from treetop bowers in lush abundance nearby. Red and Golden Delicious, Macintosh, Rome, and Winesap are names I remember best, but Rusty Coats, Limbertwigs, June Apples, and Russets whisper their names too from years gone by! Hay rides, hot cider, apple dumplin's and pumpkin bread are comforting, welcome fare as are bonfires, storytelling, and good friends gathered together to fellowship and to share!
Childish laughter abounds from the piles of rustling leaves, their playful antics and chortling glee echo ‘cross the fields and years etching precious memories!
Hello again folks!
Hope you’re all out and enjoying this lovely Tennessee Autumn!
I just love this time of year and of course as autumn’s chill makes its invigorating appearance, it’s time we turn our attention to the winter months just ahead.
With that in mind, it’s time to offer my winter weather prediction, based on the signs of nature, as taught to me by my beloved mother, Mrs. Helen Lane of Crab Orchard, TN.
For those who are not familiar with my mom, or these methods of weather predicting, a brief history! Mama predicted the weather based on nature signs her dad, Charley Sherrill, had taught her as she would trot along with him as he worked in the fields.
Mama said that both he and Grandma would talk of their childhood and the things they did growing up as they sat around the old pot-bellied stove at night in the wintertime.
They’d roast peanuts and pop popcorn over the fire, telling story after story, which, as a youngster, she just soaked up. Grandpa raised those particular crops she said just for such nights of storytelling as a welcome winter treat! She said she remembered her Dad relating a lot of his stories too while taking a break from plowing when she would bring him a bucket of good, cold water from the well. Happy memories indeed!
Grandpa was born and raised in a log cabin on Hinch Mountain, later moving to Crab Orchard after marrying my grandmother, Bertha Holloway Sherrill.
He was a descendant of Revolutionary War veteran Adam Sherrill who settled at the head of Sequatchie Valley in what is now Cumberland County, circa 1810.
Adam was the brother of Bonny Kate Sherrill Sevier, second wife of Governor John Sevier, who was well known in frontier circles for outrunning the Indians and jumping the fort wall at Fort Watauga in what is now Upper East Tennessee in 1776.
Grandma, too, was born in a log cabin on the banks of Daddy’s Creek near Crab Orchard and was also the descendant of a Revolutionary War veteran, one Michael Hassler, who fought with George Washington at Brandywine and, later, after receiving a land grant as payment for his Revolutionary War service, was reputed to have walked all the way from Pennsylvania to what is now Roane County settling in the Swan Pond area in order to establish a grist mill there, as he was a skilled miller by trade.
He raised a large family that spawned many descendants in the entire region. It was his son, Johan Adam, who settled on the banks of Daddy’s Creek near Crab Orchard in the early 1800s.
Adam Hassler’s son, Levi Hassler, had a daughter named Margaret Ann who married Samuel Houston Holloway and it was they who became the parents of my grandma.
Grandfather Levi was postmaster at Crab Orchard for many years and it is believed that it was he who drowned in Daddy’s Creek after falling through the ice while trying to deliver the mail.
Yes, the winters really did get that bad around here in those days as I’ve heard Grandma tell of deep snows that would linger for days and weeks with creeks and streams frequently freezing over.
I never knew my Grandpa Sherrill as he had died many years before I was born, but Grandma was still living when I was a little girl and I loved to sit and listen to her stories of olden days as she would tell of panthers, wolves, and bushwhackers (marauders that fought for neither side but who roamed about the countryside during the Civil War, pillaging as they went).
She told of how her mother and grandmother hid all of their handmade quilts and coverlids in caves on the banks of Daddy’s Creek so the bushwhackers wouldn’t get them.
Also, by means of her stories, I felt as though I knew Grandpa too, as she spoke of him all the time in such glowing terms and with such love and respect in her voice that I loved him too and always felt like I had missed out on a lot by never getting to know him in person.
I was grateful, however, to have her in my life as she was a wonderful grandmother and I am so proud that I had opportunity to know her and feel her influence in my life.
With that in mind, I’d like to share a snippet of some of my mother’s early writings and what she had to say about her mother and the wonderful memories she had of her as well.
It is so poignant and heartwarming and certainly solidifies the importance of the influence we each exert on our own children and grandchildren that I just have to share.
It reads:
“I’m grateful for the golden thoughts I have of her today. Grateful for the mother who bore me and built my life out of hers. This was the person who nourished me, walking to the brink of the grave that I might live. I am grateful for her outpourings of love and prayers that have guided my steps from darkness to light, over high and low ways, over smooth and rough places, sorrow, joy, failure and success. My mother was so much more than a 'housewife.' Each day she was etching a canvas painting 365 days a year. I can hear her softly humming as she went about her work. A jar of blackberry jelly cooling on the table, her frilly white kitchen curtains ironed with an old flat iron heated on the range.
"Other memories remain: green beans and new potatoes fresh from the garden, the many dresses she made me on the old treadle machine. The gentle rock of her chair as she would work on her quilts or crochet at night when her eyes were still good, the perfume of her flower garden coming through the open windows at night, the many times she led me down the road to church before we had a car, our doors swung open to love and friendship, our friends were always made welcome.
"Our house had a roof of faith that could weather the storms of this life. It was not just a house she had, it was a home where the heart could rest. We mothers of today are molders of destiny, fashioning the lives of our homes that the world of tomorrow may be a better place to live.”………written by Helen Lane in tribute to, and in remembrance of, her own mother, Mrs. Bertha Holloway Sherrill.
Thus, with heartfelt love and respect for my forebears and their wonderful legacy of love and lessons, let’s turn our attention to some of the nature signs they watched for and how it translates to the winter just ahead!
It’s looking like old man winter’s right around the corner, for there are not only lots of woolly worms this year, but their primary markings are black on both ends and brown in the middle which signifies that the beginning and ending of winter will be hard with a mild spell in between! Usually when you see an abundance of them too it means a hard winter ahead so especially in view of the fact that we’ve not been seeing many of them in years past it would seem to indicate a harsher winter coming up!
Also, I did see one and only one that was solid black, but everyone I’ve seen since then (and I’ve seen lots (!) on the roads, in the fields, etc.) have been the aforementioned black on both ends and brown in the middle. So, since majority rules we’ll go with the latter but that one solid black one still has me worried! Ha!
Also, I have counted four early morning fogs in August with two of them heavy and two that were light. I saw one heavy and one light fog at the beginning of the month and one heavy and one light at the end of the month which would coincide with the woolly worms’ markings for the beginning and ending of winter to be bad!
There was another couple of very faint fogs which would denote blue darter snows (which is just a light dusting of snow), but it has to be really cold for this type of snow to occur so watch out!
Additionally, the corn husks were really thick this year which is another hard winter indicator. The hornets, too, have been busy building their nests and I have seen two of their nests on my property with both built just about 8 feet off the ground. I’ve also had several reports from others who have noted them building at this level too. When they build really high in the treetops, it denotes a mild winter and when they build right on the ground it means the worst kind of winter, so this height coincides with the other signs in that I think it just reiterates that the beginning and ending of winter will be bad with whatever snow we get coming at those times.
Also, yellow jackets nests are below ground this year which indicates a harder winter (when they build above ground, a mild, rainy winter usually ensues).
Also, there’s an abundance of acorns and hickory nuts again this year. Not as profuse as last year (leastwise not with hickory nuts) but still significant enough to indicate a hard winter.
A heavy mast crop is one of the prime winter weather indicators the old-timers watched for in predicting the winter so this matches up with the other signs too.
Additionally, regarding the fall of leaves in October, if many of them wither and hang on it signifies a frosty winter and much snow; if leaves are slow to fall, expect a cold winter; if they remain under the trees and don’t blow away, expect a fruitful year to follow; if they are thick, expect a cold winter. Well, so far, they do seem to be slow in changing color thus slow to fall – another cold weather indicator!
Too, I heard my first katydid on July 6 which would give a frost date of October 6, three months later. Well it didn’t frost on the sixth, but it did definitely turn cold on Oct. 4 which was when the moon fulled.
This was the noted Harvest Moon! Just prior to this cold snap, I noticed the butterflies gathering and flying high, which is a sign they’re getting ready to leave just ahead of a cold spell and also a sign of an early winter!
Also, I noticed spiders trying to get in the house which they always do just prior to the weather turning colder. Mama always said that when you get a change in the weather it usually comes on a full moon or a new moon. If it snows on (or a day or two after) a new moon, the snow will usually linger on the ground for some time, however, if it snows on a full moon, it usually melts off fast.
The next full moon falls on Nov. 2 (which will be the fabled Hunters Moon) and I noticed that there will be two full moons in December falling on the second and the 31st, so this month could really be something to watch and could be the harsh beginning of winter that the woolly worm is pointing to!
So better bundle up for a cold one this year – it’s looking like it might be a humdinger for cold with two heavy snows and two mild ones to watch for at the beginning and end of winter as well as a handful of blue darters thrown in!
Take care and stay warm!
