Looking back...October

I guess I didn't post the rest of Fall, after the important event of my birthday.  There really was more to the month:

 Storytelling.. in Indianapolis, at the Crown Hill Cemetery, to start the spooky story season.

 Cousins going on the artist studio tour in Brown County,

finding interesting and original places as well as art. 

 Hiking, admiring the leaves,

 and their reflections in the still lake.

 Happy to have family together.

 Then, the more mundane aspects of the month:

the house being painted,

 days downtown at work.

More storytelling, then--

Halloween.

a full October. 

Another Year Older

If it's October, it's time for a picnic with Mimi.

This year we went to Lake Monroe, and there really was more on that table than you see in this picture!

Only the first leaves were turning and falling, but it felt like fall anyway.

If it's October, it's time for a get-together with Hoosier Kitty -

(there was a sumptious breakfast involved but not pictured)

If it's October, it's time to visit the lake

and hike with a friend, even if it was pouring down rain.

If it's October, it's time for the Romantic Man 

to bring roses and take me out to dinner.

If it's October, it's time for a few unexpected treats --

flowers, visits, phone calls..

If it's October, it must be time for my birthday!

Bringing the Fall Colors In

Inspired by the lovely leaves outside, I've been changing the colors inside.

 It is time for orange in all its variations!

As I bring out the Autumn glass and the fall colored table cloths and napkins 

and appropriate old cards...

I am thinking of all of you who contributed to my seasonal display...

so thank you to The Bloomingtonauts,  the Indy Duo, HoosierKitty, Dr. Hausfrau, Little Brother and the New Virginians, the PA Cuz, Mimi, and all those unmentioned but not forgotten.

Have fun trying to identify or remember exactly which things came from you!

Being Predictable

I know I take the same pictures every year.

You can count on winter snows, spring flowers, mushrooms and Fall leaves showing up in my photo files every year.  Every year I am newly enchanted by these seasonal changes.

I say to myself, "Enough.  There are enough pictures of leaves.  Don't take any more."

But it is a compulsion.

I am too weak to resist it.

How can I not take a picture

when one day the leaves behind these guys are only touched with color (Sunday afternoon)

and the next day (Monday morning) they look like this?

See the same reddish leaves above the guys and in the lower right corner of the second picture?

Isn't that an incredible change?  

 The colors this year seem more complex than usual -

maybe a little more subtle in their variation

 and the sky seems bluer.

I should document that.

I keep taking pictures.

Someday I'll take the perfect one.

Then I'll stop.

Mimi and mushrooms

The third of October was a lovely day.  

Well, it was an overcast day that began with damp gray skies and mellowed into blue and white ones.

We thought it was a fine day to go for a hike.

It was a little surprising that no one else seemed to think so.

Maybe it was because the day started out threatening rain, maybe it was too cool and had rained the day before, maybe because it was a Wednesday - whatever the reason Mimi and I had the woods to ourselves.

 True, the path was a little muddy in places.  The wet leaves were a little slippery on the wooden bridges.   But Mimi had her trusty walking stick and I had my thick hiking boots.

In southern Indiana the leaves are just beginning to turn.   

A little red here...a touch of yellow there...

But the colors we enjoyed most weren't from leaves.

 They were from fungi.

 Red ones all turned up like pots, white ones poking up through the leaves everywhere, globes of green ones, velvety brown shelves and thick dark ruffles up and down trunks and logs.  I didn't actually take many pictures so you will just have to imagine....

a fall forest full of mushrooms.

It's October!

Let there be flowers!

Lots of lovely Fall flowers!

Let's fill the house with color and blossom before winter comes.

Let there be cake!

 Cake and candles!

 Let there be chocolate , thick and creamy, as much as anyone could eat!

Let there be pictures!

Lots of pictures.   And lots of family and friends pictured in them.

It's October. 

 Let the celebrations begin!

Apples, but not just apples

After a visit to the farm to see Scotty ("He's so BIG" says Ellie) and to feed the goats and alpacas ("I'll throw the carrots" says Ellie), what better to do than stop by the orchard? Lots of other people have this good idea too. There are huge bins of apples, dozens of varieties, and a lovely apple-y smell in the old wooden store.

The sign promises fresh pressed cider - it was just made yesterday.
("I like it" says Ellie)

When she finishes hers, she drinks some of mine.
("I could have a little more" says Ellie)
We sit outside with our cider and popcorn and with each sip of cider we smell a sharp tart apple smell.
Right behind the deck is the barn where the cider is pressed.

Right outside the barn are bins of very flatly squished apples, humming with yellow jackets and sweetly flavoring the Autumn air.

I am sniffing and sniffing.

Where's Ellie?

She found something else to take home.

(I want this one!" says Ellie.)

The Sound of Fall

Dear Readers who are Residents of the Tropics and Subtropics,


I enjoy the virtual glimpses of your exotic climates - waves on the beach, unfamiliar flowers and wildlife - and so want to reciprocate and send you a virtual bit of a quintessential Indiana experience.





Try to image that sweet- musty smell of dry dead leaves and listen to the sound of walking under the sycamores by the creek:

The sycamore leaves may not turn lovely yellow and orange and red like the maple and sweet gum and oak but they do produce the most satisfying "crunch" of any leaves.

Fall driving hazards

I usually manage to not spend too much time while driving looking off at the hills with their Autumnal patchwork, despite the temptation. But I can't help looking at the road, can I? And it is lovely. Here I am trying to take a picture of the leaves falling as thick as snowflakes, spinning and floating down in front of the car. I am, as you can see, pretty unsuccessful. But then...

THUNK! What hit the windshield????
Was it a bullet? (It's hunting season now) Is the glass cracked?
After a bit I steady myself and the car and conclude that it was not a bullet and the windshield is fine and it was...

a walnut.

Yup. Just look along side the road. Lined with green lumps.

Dangerous things, walnuts.

Then there is traffic.
The ubiquitous bicycles are one thing.

Here's another...

Just before I took this picture the mule on the right swung way out in my lane.
Yes, I stopped the car until they went past, just in case.

And admired the trees behind them.
My kind of hazards, all of them.

October arrives

"It was a peaceful autumn day. The gilding of the Indian summer mellowed the pastures far and wide. The russet woods stood ripe to be stript, but were yet full of leaf. The purple of heath-bloom, faded but not withered, tinged the hills. The beck wandered down to the Hollow, through a silent district; no wind followed its course, or haunted its woody borders. Fieldhead gardens bore the seal of gentle decay. On the walks, swept that morning, yellow leaves had fluttered down again. Its time of flowers, and even of fruits, was over; but a scantling of apples enriched the trees; only a blossom here and there expanded pale and delicate amidst a knot of faded leaves. "

-Charlotte Bronte