The sun failed to break through the clouds enough to warm up the outside temperature so the young puppy with lots of energy and a fur coat had an advantage while playing in the fallen leaves. Rest periods were very short and not very often to photograph this active guy.
Short Rest Break
The frosty morning might jump start the leaves to turn faster again now that winter is hinting at its return.
Maple Colors
My little “buddies”, who like to dig up my flowers and garden plants, will need to hide in their massive maze of tunnels which chipmunks build so they can stay warm if it gets down to freezing tonight.
Chipmunk Needs to Hide
The weatherman last night said to go out and take a drive to view the autumn colors since it was sunny and warm this Sunday. Here the leaves are just starting to turn again after a halt in the process from the early maples, but other areas are at peak colors already.
Sunday Color Drive
The brief sunshine this evening allowed the flowers to shine brighter and attract bees and insects to gather the nectar after the rain stopped.
Asters in Sunshine
The fall flowers, like these asters, only had a glimpse of sunshine today before they got watered from the rain showers.
Fall Asters
The autumn season varies every year in the amount of color and the timing of the peak color, so it makes it difficult to plan ahead for longer distance trips months ahead of time as Mother Nature doesn’t always pay attention to the normal average peak. The ninety degree days this fall seemed to delay the color change.
Finding the Colors
The days in October brings a variety of harvesting, including garden produce like squash and gourds. And some gourds have a creepy, alien look to them and others are very colorful.
Basket of Gourds
You often see dogs jumping through piles of leaves, but cats also enjoy chasing the falling leaves and messing up the raked piles (as well as catching the rake too).
Sunkist and Tropicana
I took a picture of this silver maple tree earlier this summer to be used for a base image of a family tree, but the look of the tree was changed overnight when a bolt of lightning blew a lot of the bark off the tree. And you can follow the missing bark all the way up one of the limbs to the top of the tree. The bark was thrown from the tree across the driveway and lawn to the other side of the house. The new cracks in the trunk might make the tree blow down in the next wind storm and it is lightning out again this evening. The lightning also zapped the transformer (and at least one electric fencer) so the farm was without power for a while early this morning.
Blown Away Bark
