Today, Aki and I delay our walk until afternoon until a lower angle of sunlight can give the commonplace a rich texture. The little dog might prefer an overcast day when the sun doesn’t shine into her eyes. She doesn’t care that the sun gives her a halo as she waits for me near a display of yellowing thimbleberry leaves. We take a casual trail that runs down the north side of Gold Creek canyon. Halfway up the canyon wall, the sun washes out the forest of half-bare cottonwoods and evergreen spruce. Everything below is in dark shade. The sharp line of demarcation reminds that we recently passed the autumnal equinox when the sun was halfway on its winter journey south. On every sunny day we enjoy between now and the solstice, this shade line will climb the south slope of Mt. Juneau and reduce more and forest to gray. So begins the season of contraction and relaxation.