Musings

I succumbed to impulse this morning, and did an Instagram-style blog entry…forgive me.

After the dramatic early hours of the day, we ended up with a wash of pre-sunset sunlight backlighting, in this case, a few grapes still on The Botanist’s grapevine, over by the juniper and the peonies (the floral decorations on the path by the outhouse). I will have to nab those grapes, but maybe the fact that the critters have not already consumed them is an indication of their less-than-attractive flavor….

UPDATE: Whoops, more flurries, then just overcast at dusk. Sheesh.

Posted at 6:08 PM | Comments Off on Afternoon perspective

Winter Storm Warning off to the west.

Here: drifting flakes, then rain, then more flakes, now perhaps it’s clearing.

Just so it stays above freezing. ?

Commenter OOTF (Out of Town Friend—aka WDW) sent happy news yesterday. He is now a father-in-law. Congrats to the happy couple!

Posted at 8:59 AM | 1 Comment »

Being busy with chores indoors (hah, rhyming!), we missed the flurries that others saw for a few moments in the early-mid afternoon. Not that we’re sad we missed them, mind you! Instead we saw the wind come, the sun blitz in and disappear about five times, spending most of the day shrouded by cloud-cover. We also saw the doe and two fawns dance through the orchard between us and the lake, skittish because of the wind. Deer over flurries, perhaps a good trade!

JCB performed an engineering marvel and used two fans to move the hot air radiating from the wood stove (oh that old wood is dry!) out onto the front porch (46°F when he started, if I remember correctly), so that it was above 70°F when our company arrived, the front porch being the best place to have a party of six dine in this wee cottage.

In short, a busy, good day.

The sun reappeared for the last time during the late afternoon, and backlit the uncle-maple, which is still holding onto its lower leaves (when I took this photograph). However, with this wind, the leaves may be on the ground by morning. Or in the next county!

Posted at 10:06 PM | 1 Comment »

The fog this morning was so dense and…persistent. There’s a doe and two fawn-children (but not so fawn-y this late in the season) who hang out right under this apple tree. With its fine crop-of-drops.

The bonus is that I can monitor this subset of the deer population from the kitchen and bathroom windows…to the east.

Until they notice me and skitter skitter away.

Posted at 9:55 PM | 1 Comment »

Rumor was we’d have spotty rains today, but it was well into the afternoon before it precipitated.

With the compressed seasons of the northlands (nearby is, as I understand it, the southernmost lobe of sub-tundra in North America), October is seed-time. Some plants went to seed much earlier in the year, but the later species are working the season-end to their utmost.

Milkweeds are plenty of fun this time of the year, but they’re on my not-here-not-now list at the moment as they have overtaken much of the orchard and part of the field. Not good.

And I don’t know how to turn the tide—in a green or greenish way….

Posted at 7:21 PM | Comments Off on Fall filaments upon the firmament

Thanks to the Guru for this shot….

Walking back from our dinner date (entrée: venison-cranberry stew—oh yum!), we watched the moon preening. Or, if you anthropomorphize, it was preening; otherwise, it was playing hide-and-seek with the clouds.

Posted at 9:24 PM | 2 Comments »

Cool library security! Making sure you use a rubber band on any books you put in the bin. But, at the moment, the door’s wide open!

Posted at 5:42 PM | Comments Off on Library sentinel

Rain. Spitty rain. Mist. Just wet out. Today’s been variable.

Recent winds have brought down many leaves, but plenty are still on the branches.

These leaves came from a maple my uncle planted several decades ago. It has an unusual upright shape for a maple. The Botanist once told me that nursery-folk have a special term for these types of trees, which are especially useful in many urban settings. Of course, I cannot remember the term. Maybe it was fastigate. Maybe columnar. Maybe something else I couldn’t turn up in a quick Google-searching adventure.

Posted at 5:37 PM | Comments Off on Columnar or fastigate?

Last night I heard a rumor that the S stuff may put in an appearance this coming weekend. Here.

Right now it’s raining—just started.

So, good thing I made applesauce this morning when it was merely overcast!

Posted at 3:21 PM | Comments Off on Timing

Overnight the fall weather gained a wintery underbelly. I found the frost moderately thick in the field before the sun angle rose and reached it.

And the sun has been with us all day, how wonderful!

Posted at 4:20 PM | 1 Comment »