Fall color on the Crow Wing River

Today, Sept. 22, is the first official day of autumn and the fall colors are beginning to show themselves as in this scene of the Crow Wing River near the landing in Motley. To be exact, the Northern Hemisphere enters fall at exactly 9:21 a.m. CDT, according to the Old Farmer’s Almanac. The day - which has roughly an equal amount of nighttime and daytime - marks the official end of summer, a bummer to beach bums but a welcome change for fans of sweater weather. In Latin, the word equinox is composed of two words meaning “equal” and “night.” This hints at the fact that during the equinox the Sun crosses the so-called “celestial equator,” an imaginary line over the equator that signifies when night and day are equal to one another. (Staples World photo by Dawn Timbs)