When I opened LINE, I received photos and videos of my grandchild’s sports festival. In recent years, more and more schools have been holding sports festivals in the spring, but I remember that sports festivals used to be held in the fall. I feel nostalgic.
And today is already after the equinox, and the period of “autumn equinox” in the solar term has begun. This year’s autumn equinox is from September 23 to October 7. The solar term is further divided into three categories, and today is the first phase of that period.
The first phase is explained as “thunder stops its voice,” meaning that it is the time when the thunder that often rang during the rainy season in the summer calms down. The clouds that generate thunder are cumulonimbus clouds, also known as cumulonimbus clouds. However, those cumulonimbus clouds have also lost their momentum, and we often see autumn-like clouds such as “scale clouds,” “sardine clouds,” and “sheep clouds.”
I feel that this year’s autumn came suddenly from a long summer, but what will this year’s autumn be like? I am both excited and a little worried.

LINEを開けると、孫の運動会の写真や動画が送られて来ていました。最近は春に運動会を催す学校が多くなりましたが、昔は運動会と言えば秋という認識でしたから、懐かしい気がします。
そして今日はもう彼岸明け、節気で言う「秋分」の期間に入っています。今年の秋分は９月23から10月７日までです。節気は更に3区分され、今日はその初侯の時期に当たります。
初侯は、雷乃収声（かみなりすなわちこえをおさむ） と説明され、夏の時期は夕立で鳴ることの多かった雷がおさまる頃と言う意味です。雷が発生する雲は積乱雲、いわゆる入道雲ですが、その入道雲もすっかり勢いを無くし、「うろこ雲」や「いわし雲」、「ひつじ雲」といった秋らしい雲を見ることが多くなります。
今年は長い真夏から一気に秋になったと言う感がありますが、さて今年の秋はどうなることやら、楽しみでもあり、ちょっぴり心配でもあります。