The birch, maple and oak trees in our yard have all lost their leaves. The few oak leaves that had remained early in the week quickly fell during the wind and rain that we had over the past few days. Only a few bushes have endured and are brightening up an otherwise dreary, fog-filled week.
I did find a few lone trees with leaves as I made my way into work this morning. The bright yellow of these trees brightened a foggy departure by an ore carrier under the Aerial Lift Bridge.
The first few days of fall have been sunny and dry. I went for a long walk with Daphne and the kids on Saturday. The kids actually chose to ride their bikes instead of walk. I took my camera with so I could catch the dramatic changing of leaves that we are now enjoying. The leaves aren’t quite at their peak, but many have turned golden yellow, bright orange and deep red.
I told Sophia before we left that we may go to the pond and see the ducks and geese. She decided to bring bread with so that she could offer them a nice mid-afternoon snack.
The kids thought this huge mushroom growing on an elm tree was a bee hive. Luckily no bees, but one big fungus.
We had a number of small birds fly into our south-facing picture window on Saturday. Unfortunately, two birds didn’t make it. Sophia managed to “rescue” this bird. I think it is a downy woodpecker, but do not confess to be an ornithologist, so feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
It was just seconds after I took this picture that she flew off. Her crash into the window must have made her see stars, but it only took a few minutes to shake it off and take flight again. We were glad to have a happy ending to her story.
Saving the best photos for last…
Although not quite officially fall, the signs are evident that it is close at hand.
The final garden flowers.
We picked the grapes from our Concord grape vine earlier this month. We had enough juice to make three batches of grape jelly (12 pints). My brother generously offered the grapes from his vine and even picked them for me and delivered them to our house. In total, I made six batches (24 pints) of jelly, froze 10 cups of juice (equivalent to 8 more pints of jelly) and made a quart of grape juice that we drank. I’m quite certain that I don’t want to look at another grape for a very long time. We are stocked with grape jelly for the entire school year of lunch boxes filled with PB&J’s.
Sophia’s school had a “Harvest Festival” this week. Students were asked to bring in something from their garden to show during the festival. We still have carrots, peppers, tomatoes and apples, but Sophia decided a bouquet is what she wanted to share with her fellow schoolmates.
She won 1st prize for her bouquet.
We were fortunate that the festival was early in the week. We had a hail storm come through on Wednesday which shredded the leaves on our few remaining garden plants, our grape vine and took many leaves and small branches off the trees. A few hours after the storm had passed, this was what still remaining on the top of our rain barrel.
The decks were littered with pieces of foliage and sticks.
We are planning to get outside tomorrow to take care of sweeping the decks and cleaning up the yard. A little bit of nice weather would be nice so that we can also enjoy my nephew’s soccer game Saturday and Sebastian’s last day of baseball camp on Sunday.
M. Sullivan Photography 