Here in the Northwest, I think that October is the time when the fall season commitment is clearly expressed. We have such long transitions between seasons it is sometimes hard to tell when the season really has changed to the next predominant weather pattern. Yesterday I couldn’t help but think of how “soft” and gray the air had become and how this is the feeling I experience when I am in places like the Olympic Forest. I think the “soft” feeling comes from the sun being filtered through thick clouds or thick trees, from rain fall trajectory being interrupted by numerous leaf surfaces and from the quieting effect of leaves coated with wet. I like how the moss “greens-up” this time of year and how the promise of our rainy season allows my native plants to grow abundant roots for their best establishment over the winter. The “soft” feels like the transition to the quiet season of winter preparation when the native plants ready themselves to provide food abundance for all the little native critters.