Fifty Years, A Mum Festival In Bristol

Chrysanthemum Festival, Bristol, is a town-wide festival that celebrates the brilliant flowering of chrysanthemums - and has been doing that for 50 years.

Family fun, food, carnival, arts and crafts, house tours, auto show, concerts, Oktoberfest and plenty more.

The festival is ongoing on the weekend through Sunday, Oct. 9.

Autumn Equinox: Migration Time

September is my favorite month of all.

Monarch butterflies are migrating overhead, following air roads only they can see and travel to their winter homes.

Autumn officially starts with the equinox, but for insects and birds and trees (and anyone who rises at dawn) the journey that leads to a New England winter is already in progress

Welcome to fall. Orange and deep purple are the colors of September.

Pumpkins and mums, orange-yellow goldenrod and the purple New England asters - cold nights and colorful leaves overhead, the sound of birds flocking to fly south. Time to don wooly sweaters and workboots and chop some firewood, clean the chimney and ready the woodstove.

Annual Mum Festival To Bloom In Bristol

The annual Chrysanthemum Festival in Bristol is a town-wide celebration of the beauty of chrysanthemum.

Opening ceremony and crowning of "Miss Mum" on Friday, Sept. 25, 7 p.m. at Bristol Central.

The parade steps off Sunday, Sept. 27, 1:30 p.m.

Events include food fest, carnival, arts and crafts, house tours, auto show, Oktoberfest and much more. (Bring your camera.)

The colorful fun amid blooms and flowers happens Friday through Sunday (weekends through Oct. 11), with the first weekend Sept. 25, 26 and 27.

Related events happen around the city, including the 11th Annual Illumination under the stars at the Giamatti Little League Center, 335 Mix Street, Bristol Friday, Oct. 2, 7 p.m. (free).

For more details and a complete listing of all the fun, see www.bristolmumfestival.org.