Posts Tagged ‘fall colors’
Couldn’t Fly
We drove home. The weather didn’t clear up enough in the Cities for us to fly Mike’s plane back. Not for lack of us trying to will the clouds to lift. We checked for promising progress frequently throughout the day, but that didn’t seem to help. A watched weather report doesn’t necessarily clear.
The focus of our dual-purpose trip shifted more toward the speedboat motor getting serviced and the boat being brought back to the storage building on their secondary property.
That gave us time to kill, which we used for another walk through their woods.
There was a fair amount of bright fall colors in the leaves near the ground.
However, there were very few leaves of any hue left in the branches overhead.
The boat dealer told Mike they could have his motor service completed by 3:00. If flying weather was going to improve enough, Mike suspected it wouldn’t happen until around 4:00. The potential was there for us to accomplish both his main goals, even though Mike was more than willing to take care of just one and call the trip a success.
If a window of good flying weather conditions opened up, we would take it immediately and leave the boat to be picked up on a future trip to their cabin. We plotted a course of action for the day, packed up our gear, and left the cabin to walk more trails on their property.
After that, we headed to town for a late lunch and then drove to the boat dealer to wait for the service work to be completed, watching flying conditions on an app all the while.
It wasn’t improving at all.
The call to report the boat was ready came at about 2:58. We hooked it up and drove back to their property to park the boat and trailer in their storage building. Then we drove back into Grand Rapids and stopped for one last check at around 4:00.
It was obvious, which made it an easy call, despite how badly we both wanted to fly. We were driving home, and into the dark of night. The flight would have taken around an hour and twenty minutes. The drive was over three and a half hours.
However, fear not! We had each other and my digital music library for entertainment. The time passed easily, especially with Mike doing the driving. It’s a route he has traveled for 40 years, making him an excellent tour guide for points of interest along the way.
I was only away from home for 35 hours, but Asher gave me a greeting when I walked in the door like it had been a LOT longer. I suppose he was measuring my absence in dog-years.
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Striking Scenery
The day started as brilliantly as it ended yesterday. The timing of the sunrise has moved late enough that our morning walk with Asher on the way to feeding the horses brings some wonderful displays in the sky.
Early in the afternoon, I met Mike at the Flying Cloud Airport, where I parked my car before climbing into his SUV for the drive north. The fall scenery was looking pretty impressive, a couple of hours north of the Cities, despite the sputtering rain from a gray cloud cover. If it had been clear and sunny, it would have really popped.
The clouds to the north of the precipitation put on a show of their own, which I captured through the windshield.
One of the chores during this trip was to move their boat into town (Grand Rapids) for winterization service. We arrived to hook up the trailer with time to spare for a walk in their woods. The scenery around the pond, with its glassy surface, was particularly photogenic.
It’s a little past peak for brilliant reds and oranges up here, but the tamaraks are just short of reaching their peak fall beauty.
Our plan to fly Mike’s plane home today is teetering on the edge of acceptable weather, which is exactly why they had to leave the plane here the last time. It will be disappointing if we have to drive home, but we will return today one way or another.
It would be a first for me to view fall colors from a small plane. My fingers are crossed.
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Not Colorful
The leaves are changing, but not into the glorious reds, yellows, and oranges one expects in the fall. No, this year we are getting a predominant dose of browns.
I don’t know if it’s due to dry conditions or something else, but trees that have been brilliant in past autumns are simply transitioning to shriveled brown leaves this year.
It’s hardly the glorious spectacle we wanted when Cyndie and I chose September to be our wedding month. That just so happened to occur 44 years ago on this exact date. I believe we had a fair amount of color in the trees in 1981. I don’t think I paid a lot of attention to the fall colors, what with my beautiful bride commanding all of my focus that day.
Seven years after that, our son, Julian, was born on the same day as our anniversary. So today is a day of celebration in the Hays family. Tonight, Cyndie and I have reservations at the Shady Grove restaurant, about 4 minutes away from our house. Tomorrow, we meet our kids for dinner in Stillwater to toast Julian.
Maybe we’ll get lucky and find some colorful trees on our drive along the St. Croix River.
It’s a Happy Birthniversary Day!
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It’s Starting
In September, the shortening of days becomes more noticeable. The temperature swings between morning and afternoon force clothing adjustments from jackets to shirt sleeves. Tree leaves begin to reveal that their growing season is coming to an end.
The tops of some of our trees are starting to show some orange. Cyndie has set our thermostat to “Auto” to cool the house if the daytime gets too warm and bring heat when the nights get too chilly. Schools are in session, and fall sports are underway.
Advertisers peddling goods via Christmas themes won’t be far behind.
I experimented with relaxing my perfectionistic tendencies yesterday in order to get enough mowing done to feel like our place is ready for us to be gone for a week. The grass remained damp enough that it was difficult to get a grip with the riding mower’s tires.
It didn’t feel like I had time to carefully navigate sideways slopes, so there was a fair amount of failure to keep the free-spinning front wheels of the zero-turn from uncontrolled turns downhill. It was a haphazard, frequently circular route to getting all the grass blades trimmed.
The wet soil and slippery grass resulted in a far greater occurrence of spinning wheels when I simply wanted to execute a turn. Normally, this causes me a lot of angst and a fair amount of foul language, and inspires me to try many ways to prevent it from happening. Not yesterday, though.
I chose the alternative of not caring in an effort to accomplish the greater goal of having the whole place mowed before we leave. I’m the only one who will even notice the increased number of skid marks.
It’s September. People’s attention will be on the trees, not on the dirt marks in our grass.
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Still Blooming
Nearing the end of the second week of October in my part of the world didn’t used to involve rose blossoms. These days, this kind of outdoor plant behavior is not all that surprising.
Asher and I were visiting the labyrinth to top off the water bag around the maple tree when I noticed the flowers. They stood out against the drought-influenced fading life and fallen leaves all around them. I was struck by the fact the rose bush was able to do so much with so little moisture available in the ground.
I must admit, it feels somewhat futile to try giving one tree a tiny bit of extra water while the rest of the growth in the surrounding woods is left wanting.
The fall colors have been less spectacular than some other years but it is changing.
As dusk settled in and the half-moon stood out brightly in the sky, the uncharacteristic warmth of a summer evening on this October night was simply the new normal.
While other parts of the world are coping with floods, our little nook in Wisconsin, USA, is warm and dry.
With rose blossoms.
Leaves Leaving
Leaves were falling, just like embers
In colors red and gold, they set us on fire
Killing the Blues by Rowland Salley
I went after a little more late-season lawn mowing yesterday afternoon and it turned our backyard striped.
That is what happens when you mow over the leaves instead of raking them up first.
The leaves have been leaving the trees in an increasing amount with each passing day.
It creates a carpet of leaves beneath the trees that produce one of my favorite forest looks.
Cyndie’s prized “door table” under the trees becomes a mystical decoration in a picturesque nook where romping squirrels make so much noise it sounds like a deer must be running through.
Falling leaves. You know what that means?
Falling flakes won’t likely be very far behind.
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Hot Start
Hello October. Goodbye Twin Cities Marathon. Marathon officials canceled today’s races early this morning because the expected heat and humidity pushed the conditions to the extreme and dangerous “Black-Flag” status. Aye-yai-yai, that’s like living in a time when the warming of our planet is impacting everyday life.
On the way to the barn this morning, I noticed the recent rains we’ve received have invigorated lawn grass growth. I’m so happy to have electric lawnmowers that make end-of-season maintenance a non-issue. Mowing grass in October is not something that used to happen in the past in our region.
We have taken advantage of this late-season warmth by planting grass seeds along the driveway. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em.
While waiting for the seeds to germinate, I noticed the rain softened the gravel drive loop around the hay shed enough to make pulling weeds easy. It’s an activity the Asher can help with and not be a pest. He even bites and pulls at weeds as he aggressively digs.
It looks great, but progress is slow working by hand. If I was serious about cleaning up the whole loop, I’d be well-served by getting out the diesel tractor and using the back blade.
For now, I’ll put my attention toward mowing. If it rains again soon, I can return to weeding the gravel. It just looks so nice, I can’t help myself.
Here are a couple of other things that look really nice:
Freshly fallen pine needles are carpeting the trail along our north property line.
This morning’s sunrise was illuminating the colorful leaves in the trees around the labyrinth before it was high enough to reach the ground below.
It will be a scenic day to mow.
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Overnight Guests
A lot has happened around here overnight lately. Construction (spider webs), Excavation (ground bee nest dug up), and now Guests! Barb and Mike Wilkus came to meet Asher for the first time yesterday and slept over so we could go out to dinner and then have some hang time together afterward.
Mike got a chance to tool around on my Greeworks riding lawn mower.
We visited Tattersall Distillery in River Falls for the first time for dinner and met a really great server whose accent hinted he might be fluent in the Spanish language. He told Mike and me that he is half-Bolivian. We told him to surprise Cyndie when she returned to the table by speaking to her in Spanish as if he already knew she would understand him.
It worked pretty well and triggered additional stories and visits with him throughout the meal, which boosted a really nice dining experience well beyond just the good food and impressive space they have created at the location that was a huge Shopco building when we first moved here.
The fall colors are turning finally and one day can bring a big change to individual trees that is startling to witness. If it were possible to stare long enough, you could watch it as it happens.
Tonight we are expecting more overnight guests to arrive in preparation for a group bike ride Saturday morning. I picked this day back in the beginning of August and have seen day after day of perfect cycling weather pass. Now a threat of rain is arriving, which we desperately need, but that’s one thing that really puts a damper (pun intended) on group riding.
Maybe that’s one way to break a drought. I’ll just plan way ahead for people to come to Wintervale for a bike ride and the odds of getting rain that day will go way up.
We’ll take whatever we get. No matter the weather, it’s always more fun around here when company comes to visit.
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Noticing More
Look around and see what is there in plain sight. The more you look, the more you will notice. It wasn’t hard to see the difference four days can make when it comes to the first trees changing over to fall-colored leaves. When Cyndie and I pulled out of the driveway at the lake we were surprised at the difference from when we arrived.
Along the county road, it was all green leaves when we approached the driveway last Thursday. By the following Monday, this is what we saw:
At home, it is the Japanese Silver Grass that has changed right before our eyes. The fireworks of seed sprouts are bursting forth regally.
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The last day of 90°F weather from this latest heat wave led us to choose activities that were mostly indoors yesterday. Asher was not bashful about asking for some attention from me as I lounged in the recliner watching coverage of the US Open tennis tourney.
It was nice to finally receive some rain last night, but it will take a lot more than a passing shower to make progress against the drought that is beginning to stress growing things. There was little growth from the grass I mowed before we left for Labor Day weekend. In fact, there is little green now compared to a week ago.
The grass is turning brown. Noticeably brown.
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Great Getaway
Let’s just say the lake place was sublimely beautiful when we arrived yesterday.
Downright picturesque.
Ideal breeze off the lake, comfortable temperature, and just a hint of fall coloring the landscape.
Topping it off, we received a wonderful report from home about Asher and the horses from our first-time sitters. Oh, and we had our favorite Coop’s pizza for dinner.
We are fully prepared to usher in a holiday weekend. Hello September and goodbye summer.
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Relative Something 