Not so many days ago I started hearing the delightful sounds that are made by the crickets around this time each year.

I absolutely love their sounds, and over the years I have come to associate them with the just-around-the-corner arrival of fall. This week the crickets have inspired me to think about the other signs that fall is quickly approaching.

I know that fall is on the way when…

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The Moffat County Fair is over and attention is now on the Colorado State Fair.

An aisle at the grocery store is devoted to specials on back-to-school supplies.

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School is starting soon (and where my family is concerned, not only will daughter-in-law Cindy and granddaughter Jessica be returning to their school jobs but great-grandchildren Brian and Luna will be starting preschool!).

The football season is here.

Some Halloween items are showing up in area stores.

Trucks loaded with hay pass by on the highway; everybody is stocking up for winter.

The hummingbirds have come down from the mountains, have found the feeders of nectar, and are fighting each other for it.

Sadly we will soon have to take down nectar feeders because bird experts tell us that we need to encourage the hummingbirds to leave so they have time to fly to their winter homes — already!

People are checking out the chokecherry crop.

The grasses and some weeds have matured and turned brown.

At our family ranch at Morapos, some rattlesnakes are starting to seek out water (and my brother, Osborn baled one up the other day).

Apples are getting ripe.

Garden produce is wonderful—zucchini and other squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, and more—which means lots of good cooking opportunities.

Ponds on summer grazing lands are getting low on water or have run out.

The robins are no longer singing their early morning songs.                                                       

Already it’s getting dark a little earlier at night.

The mama cats have given birth to their second batches of kittens, and the first kittens of the year are coming into cat food and doing well on their own.

Leaves on the lilac bushes remain only at the tops of the bushes, after a summer of deer eating them as high as they can reach, and strange-looking bushes are a result.

Some days, out of the blue, there’s a sign—perhaps the temperature or a sound or sight—that reminds me of a fall day.

Last night as I got ready to climb into bed, I could hear the sounds of the crickets through the open window, and I was reminded that it is my favorite sign of the approaching fall season.