This evening, the queen of the heavens assumes her royal throne, with all her starry retinue gathering in close attendance. Her image, known as "Diana's Mirror," is reflected from the burnished surface of the dark and heaving seas; her increasing glow across the shaded lands casts that magic spell that has long inspired romantics to new heights.

It's well known that if you seek a really happy man, look first to find him building a boat, creating a symphony of his dreams, or perhaps, tending the grape arbor. Happiness feeds on exhilaration, the satisfaction of a job well done, the contentment found in mending a net, or the delight in teaching a young’un the art of fishing, for happiness is found by focusing beyond ourselves.

So it is when the autumnal winds begin their ancient game of treetop tag. While sweeping away the worn and bleached clouds of a sulky summer, they inspire a refurbishing of the old weather-worn days of green with refreshed new brilliance.

Crimson-painted sumacs mingling reds and oranges amid purple leaves now gather in refreshing contrast beneath cobalt-clear heavens. Brown thrashers feast on the figs, squirrels poach pecans and catbirds frolic amid the grape vines. Splashing rains awaken the spore of sleeping mushrooms, reveling in succulent gaiety amid a littering of nuts, pine and pecan, oak and hickory. Falling leaves reveal the gold and green of sun-ripened fruited treasures of summer, of assorted acorns and piles of shredded pine cones.

Autumn brings the gift of another season free and clear. The awakening moon warns us the future is in our hands.