The autumnal equinox occurred yesterday at 3:44 PM for my area and today marks the first full day of autumn. The trees must have been like me and haven’t looked at the calendar for a while as some of the trees were starting to show color before the equinox and this lonely leaf has changed color and has fallen already and now won’t be seen by the leaf ‘peepers’ who will soon take leisurely drives or walks to view the autumn range of colors.
Autumn Begins
After several days of snowy, icy conditions and now several cold days on tap with -20 to -35 wind chills, I think it is about time that this ‘not so nice’ weather hit the tracks and head on out of here and let some color return to the landscape again.
Hit the Tracks
The ‘red barn’ week had winter and summer scenes so today picture will be a red barn in the autumn.
Hundreds of years ago, many farmers would seal their barns with linseed oil, which is an orange-colored oil derived from the seeds of the flax plant. To this oil, they would add a variety of things, most often milk and lime, but also ferrous oxide, or rust. Rust was plentiful on farms and because it killed fungi and mosses that might grow on barns, was very effective as a sealant. It turned the mixture red in color.
As European settlers crossed over to America, they brought with them the tradition of red barns. In the mid to late 1800s, as paints began to be produced with chemical pigments, red paint was the most inexpensive to buy. Red was the color of favor until whitewash became cheaper, at which point white barns began to spring up.
Autumn Red
One last ‘old’ picture for the old year ending. It looks like this old fence list is counting down to the new year with 2 old steel fence posts and then one old wooden post. But of course the new year here will not be a warm fall day but a cold, white winter day with temperatures starting out around -10F and wind chills down to -23F – a refreshing start to the new year.
Old Fence Line
A little color for those tired of grey or white days. Autumn colors never last as long as the winter white.
Bright Autumn Colors
The Hereford cow is probably wishing it was a sunny, warm fall day, surrounded by yellow and red leaves, instead of damp, grey day like today.
Sometimes it is easy to overlook how tall some of the old mills were until you see a person or critter near one, but at least the Aermotor had a tilting tower so that the owners didn’t have to climb the tower every few days to oil the gearbox. The tilting tower models disappeared once the enclosed gearboxes were invented and only needed oiling once a year (and hopefully not on a winter day).
Hereford Grazing Beneath a Windmill
I imagine this horse would prefer a sunny day where there were still leaves on the trees since now on this November day, there are no leaves and it is a rainy day where the rain could change to snow!
Horse in Autumn Pasture
The reds, orange and yellows of the maple trees are gone but the oaks are still providing some fall color, even if many of the oaks have a more brownish color. But some oaks have a bright red color too and often mixed in with green right next to the reds. Although many of those pretty oaks leaves took flight over night and are now covering my lawn.
Red-colored Oak Leaves
The Herefords are wondering what I’m doing taking their picture and interrupting their grazing. Course the colored leaves caught my attention first and seeing the cattle were a bonus.
Curious Herefords
It feels and looks more like a grey November day than October so I needed a bright, sunny October picture for today.
October Lane
