Colored leaves and red apples on the trees announce that fall is here, but as soon as it gets here, it seems to slip away too quickly as more leaves are on the ground than on the tree, the days get cloudy and cold, and the apples are harvested before they freeze. And hopefully these apples were picked since the temperature was 23ºF last night, otherwise the birds will have a supply of apples to pick at.
Signs of Autumn
The mighty oak is trying to hang on to summer, refusing to display autumn colors yet and waving its green leaves in front of the bitternut hickory tree in the background, who gave up on the fight and has turned. But I suppose we have to face that winter is coming, especially since I just looked up and there are a few snow flakes drifting by the window as it is still below freezing yet this morning.
Hanging on to Summer
The sunset last night looked a little eerie but then it probably knew what the night would bring and I wasn’t overly pleased to see a white coating on the ground early this morning so I went back to bed and it disappeared when I got up again so it was just all my imagination that it had snowed. Except I see flakes mixed in with the rain now so maybe it wasn’t my imagination after all.
Eerie Sunset
Yesterday was probably the last chance for maple leaves to have a golden glow in the filtered sunlight since the wind, snow and rain this week will likely strip most of the leaves off the maples and only a few hardly survivors left to wave at you on mostly bare tree. Maybe the bluebirds will head south now with the lost of leaves as they were still singing yesterday in the sunshine.
Catching the Last Golden Glow
It may be Friday, but the work week won’t end for the farmers trying to get the crops in before winter, especially with the forecast of snow flakes in the air. The soybeans are being harvested in this field but there is still corn in the next field to get harvested.
Autumn Harvest
The maples leaves are disappearing with the wind, robbing the trees of their glorious autumn displays and the ‘leaf peepers’ will have to wait another year to see colorful maple leaves again.
Vanishing Autumn
The ‘leaf peepers’ are normally out when the maples are red, orange and yellow and the later turning oaks are often ignored, especially since many oaks just turn to a brown color but some oaks show some color too. Here two different varieties of oak are leading in from opposite sides of the narrow path.
And since I was looking at the leaves and not the tree, I am not totally for sure on the varieties, but from the leaves, it appears to be a white oak and a red oak, even though the white oak that is more red at the moment.
As a kid learning about trees in 4-H, there was a little saying to help remember the white from the red oaks. Since the Native Americans used arrows, the red oak leaves were pointy and the white colonists used round bullets, so the white oak had round ends. So I wonder if these two oaks reaching in are making peace or war, but whatever the case may be, I will enjoy the display of colors.
Joining Oaks
This ‘farmer’ probably will need his winter boots and coat soon with the mention of snow for Friday. And instead of a hay dump rake, he will need a tractor loader to dump snow instead.
Old Hay Dump Rake
I think the fall asters are bright purple just so they don’t get lost and overlooked in the yellows and other autumn leaf colors.
Yellow and Purple
On a nice Sunday afternoon, I’m sure the roads are filled with people looking at the autumn colors and some are taking train rides through the colorful railways. I didn’t take a train ride so I just have to picture that I did and pretend I rode the tracks around the bend to more colorful spots.
Autumn All Aboard
