Pumpkins come in all shapes, sizes and colors. However, it’s still summer, and, it can be assumed, pumpkins still are on the vine. (Journal photo by Christie Mastric)

Autumn begins on Sept. 23.

Let that sink in when people tell you summer is over.

Sure, Northern Michigan University students are coming back, you see the occasional red maple leaf on the ground and the days are getting shorter.

That doesn’t mean all is lost.

For one thing, is autumn all that bad? The temperatures are lower, but the leaves, to me at least, are the most spectacular of the year. You see yellows, oranges and reds that make a more varied landscape than a monochromatic green, which I admit would sometime be a welcome sight during a whiteout blizzard.

You also get a lot of acorns in the fall. I tried eating one when I was a kid and decided to let the squirrels have them. Cashews they are not. That said, I like the shapes of them.

One day when I had nothing better to do, I tried gluing together some acorns, painting them to create an acorn sculpture, but it didn’t quite work out the way I wanted. Maybe I didn’t use the correct glue. Maybe priming the acorns before painting them would have helped. Anyway, I’ll leave this idea to the professional artists out there.

However, considering the cold temperatures of the Upper Peninsula, summer definitely has its appeal. I can sit out on our outside deck in relative comfort and watch the scarlet runner beans grow. I don’t have to deal with my right sock always falling down to my ankle when I wear winter boots (for some reason, this is a thing). Defrosting my car in the morning still is a few months away.

People tend to divide the seasons emotionally: Winter seems to be defined as when snow falls, and around here, that can be from October to June. Generally, though, folks think of winter as December, January and February, and spring as March, April and May.

Summer, then, is considered to be June, July and August, and autumn is September, October and November.

Thus, we soon are entering a “Twilight Zone” of sorts. (Did you think I’d let too many Christie’s Chronicles columns go by without mentioning the TZ, one of my favorite shows?) It’s not quite summer, but technically, it’s not fall, although the word “fall” is in many names of events, such as Northern Michigan University’s Fall Fest. The Not-Yet-Autumnal-Equinox Fest, though, just doesn’t roll off the tongue as easily.

I also contend that in the U.P., September can be just as warm if not warmer than June. In fact, I recall seeing icebergs in Lake Superior one June not too many years ago. Although that was probably an anomaly, that just goes to show you that autumn is not exactly an upcoming meteorological nuisance.

For me, September is a great time of year, weather-wise. You still have balmy weather along with the knowledge the autumn colors soon will be out in force, acorns will drop on neighbors’ car hoods, chrysanthemums will be in local nurseries and stores, and pumpkins will be on the market, soon to reach their Halloween destiny.

And what’s not to love about pumpkins? For one thing, the word “pumpkins” in itself is cute. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve “cutened up” a word by adding the “kins” suffix. Could she still hear, my dog Susie — or “Susiekins” — would attest to that.

Pumpkins are appealing in their shapes too. They can be giant orbs, or as I like to call them, “superpumpkins,” or they can be oblong or semi-flattened. I’m past the practice of carving them or extracting the seeds, so I place them by our side door and surround them with gourds for a decorative display that holds out until they liquify.

Technically, though, it’s still summer. On Sept. 23, the autumnal equinox will take place. This is when the sun crosses the celestial equator going south. Until that happens, we are in a state of summer.

Therefore, I will enjoy defrostless mornings, hummingbirds filling up on nectar before migrating south and late-summer wildflowers until we transition to autumn — on Sept. 23, and not a day sooner.