Autumn has begun, here.
We've had a nice, mild summer with plenty of rain, so the grass is still very green, but as we travel around the Virginia piedmont, we can see colonies of trees are subtley changing hue on the sides of the foothills. What once looked like walls of green are now showing patchworks of golden tones where the Hickory trees live, and sudden scarlet areas where the Dogwood trees stand. I love it when this happens. It's like a sudden nonconformity. The tress are briefly revealing their factions before they throw off their clothes altogether.
Yesterday a flock of robins visited my yard. As I understand it, they don't really migrate away from here, but do tend to congregate away from the open areas where people tend to live, and go into the woods for the winter to take cover from larger birds of prey.
I also saw a large Piliated Woodpecker in the back yard yesterday. He was dressed dashingly in black and white, as if going to the opera- but his wild bright red cap let me know he had his own style going on. He called a few times, and his mate answered. I looked for her, but she stayed hidden. This made me think about duality in nature, the She and He, the Yin and Yang, the This and That. I am glad that there is This and That in the world. Without This we can't have That (at least not for long) and vice versa.
The mornings have become markedly cooler, and while I'll miss the fabulosity of weekend barefoot bathrobed coffee on the patio with the paper, I will not miss the mosquitos.
You may have robins, but I have the annual Calgary Mass Murder taking place in the park next door every night. A couple of hours before sunset, hundreds (possibly thousands) of crows start swarming downtown, perching on the buildings around my apartment and flying about in formation. By dark, most of them roost in trees in the park on the next block.
I'll try to grab some pictures; the few I've gotten from the balcony to date don't really do it justice.
A company I worked for had large glass windows all along one side. Every year during 'crow season' they massed along the windowsills on all three floors, pecking at their reflections, cawing randomly, seeming to peer in at cube-dwellers, and totally creeping out the ornithophobes. It was great!
(http://www.crowvalley.com/images/sm%20black%20crow.gif)
Spring is sprung, the grass is rizzed
Oi wonder where the boidies iz?
Some say the boids are on the wing, but that's obsoid,
The boids are not upon the wing, the wings are on the boid!
Hey- that's cute!
I loves da boidies with all my teensy ugly body. They always seem to be telling me something if I'll stop to listen.
Now we're getting ready for Halloween. Last year our new kitten tore the old screens to our gazebo tent, so we put them up on the front porch for that "Torn Curtain" look. They spent the summer fading further in a wicker chest on the porch and this year have an almost mauve glow to them, which looks great with pumpkins.
We have a tradition of having our friends from the local hills who have kids come to our house in town for Halloween Trick-or-Treating. This year I'll make them a big pot of home-made Lentil soup and some hot bread and we'll have some supper before we go. Afterward the kids can trade candy for a while and the parents can hang out and decompress with a beer or glass of wine.
Quote from: Opsanus tau on October 15, 2008, 07:00:37 PM
Hey- that's cute!
I hope you know that I claim no authorship whatsoever for that poem. It is one of my mother's favourite ones from when she was a girl, I have no idea who wrote it.
Regardless, spring has definitely well and truly sprung around here, my roses are about to erupt in masses of flowers, the grass is definitely rized, I should be mowing it every 4 days or so, but it will have to put up with once a week. Yesterday my pigface birst into thousands of brilliant pink flowers. I love this time of year!
Oh please write about spring down your way in the SPRING section, here. I've always wanted to see Oz in the spring. Plus, I'm dying to see a photo of a "pigface" in bloom. It sounds charming.
Quote from: Bluenose on October 16, 2008, 09:13:11 AM
Quote from: Opsanus tau on October 15, 2008, 07:00:37 PM
Hey- that's cute!
I hope you know that I claim no authorship whatsoever for that poem. It is one of my mother's favourite ones from when she was a girl, I have no idea who wrote it.
Spring is sprung,
The flowers is ris,
I wonder where
the birdies is?
They say the bird
is on the wing,
But that's absurd.
I say the wing
is on the bird.
Ogden Nash....
AHH! I thought I recognised it. I like Ogden Nash.
Well, then.
I always eat peas with honey.
I've done it all my life.
They do taste kind of funny,
but it keeps them on the knife.
Ogden Nash...
Those two are my favourites... :D
Parsley
Is gharsley.
Candy
Is Dandy
But liquor
Is quicker.
A shrimp who sought his lady shrimp
Could catch no glimpse
Not even a glimp.
At times, translucence
Is rather a nuisance.
Ogden Nash
Such a cool name, as well...
When I was a kid we had a recording of "Carnival of the Animals" with
Ogden Nash verses (http://www.ncusd203.org/river_woods/musicweb/rwwebsite/carnival_animals/nash_carnival.html) preceeding each piece.
This one's for you, Pachy:
THE ELEPHANT
Elephants are useful friends,
Equipped with handles at both ends,
They have a wrinkled moth proof hide,
Their teeth are upside down, outside,
If you think the elephant preposterous,
You've probably never seen a rhinosterous.
preposterous, moi? ;D
Yesterday morning I went driving into the Blue Ridge mountains to deliver a catalpa tree to some friends. Mid-October is when we normally get the peak foliage colors around here. We've had a late summer which ended in very dry weather. Last week we had a hurricane or two pass close by and we had heavy rains and winds.
Yesterday morning everything was scrubbed clean. The native flora on the byway I prefer to drive (as opposed to Interstate Route 66) were a tapestry of gold and purple. A good breeze was blowing and the foothills were animated by the shadows of dense clouds playing over them. The trees on the hills, which have been all shades of green all summer are now breaking out into colonies of individual families. The Dogwoods have a reddish tinge now, the hickories are fading to golden. The air smelled like spices. It was beautiful!
Th'Opsalette made a handsome Halloween skeleton from our front door by cutting up red folders and numbering each rib and fingerbone like a forensic scientist so that we could put him up correctly. She and I stopped at a yard sale and bought a whole box of Chinese new year decorations. She wants to put up the fabulous dragons on our porch as Halloween decorations. I wondered if that was kosher with the Chinese people. Anyone know?
No idea. But Autumn is here - fabulous tree colours.
They are not on level with a religious icon AFAIK, so I don't see the problem. I think they'd probably laugh at the silly white people more than anything.
You could put up something really horrible, like an effigy of a man being tortured by being nailed to a block of wood and left there to hang.... ;) ;) ;)
:ROFL:
I've probably mentioned this before, but there's a book called The Hollow Doll which is a western guy's account of his time spent in Japan, and at one point he recalls seeing a Santa Claus nailed to a cross in a shop window around Christmastime.
We had our first really chilly night last night. the leaf colors are probably going to go wild here shortly.
Quote from: Opsanus tau on October 05, 2010, 03:50:16 PM
I've probably mentioned this before, but there's a book called The Hollow Doll which is a western guy's account of his time spent in Japan, and at one point he recalls seeing a Santa Claus nailed to a cross in a shop window around Christmastime.
That's a decoration trend I can see catching on!
;) :mrgreen:
There is the undying rumor that unsold chocolate Santas are repackaged as Easter Bunnies and that was the reason to drop the bas-relief for it would eliminate the remelting and caszting step. Xmas sweets have begun to be sold on 1st Sept. Easter stuff will follow shortly after Xmas.
Yesterday we swept up two large bags of leaves from the drive. Today there are as many again. Why did we bother? :headbang:
I hear ya, DH.
We had to have a large old tree taken down this year and I felt so bad for it. It was dying and dropping huge limbs suddenly every now and then, and as it was situated close to two occupied homes, we thought it was the safest thing to do before it destroyed a roof or killed someone. The only upside in its absence is that we don't have ALL THOSE LEAVES to rake this year!
We still have other leaves, but now not as many.
I do miss that tree, though.
If you don't want the logs, Opsa, you could post them to me ....
Anti-deer fencing completed around all trees and sizable shrubberies!
Lawn furniture folded and stowed in lawn building attic!
Hoses disconnected, drained, and hung in shed!
:beer:
Those logs were HUGE, DH! They had to quarter them just to move them off the land.
You're way ahead of me, Po'9!
Quote from: OpsaI've probably mentioned this before, but there's a book called The Hollow Doll which is a western guy's account of his time spent in Japan, and at one point he recalls seeing a Santa Claus nailed to a cross in a shop window around Christmastime.
Found it at last! It was on my hard drive all the while.
LOL!
I don't know if this is a good sign or not. Are we crucifying crass commercialism here, or the symbol of generosity to children?
Autumn has well and truly arrived here in middle Sweden, too. We have had some lovely days with crisp and clear weather and fantastic colours of the foilage, but we have also had some very cold, misty and rainy nights. And now, leaf fall season has set in on the railways, with lots of slipping and sliding all over the place. Still, I do like this season.
Here's a picture I took from the cab about a week and a half ago, outside Krampen, a very small village in the Bergslagen area of Sweden.
Here the only sign of Autumn is a bit drier (read: less damp) weather and some cooler early mornings (66F/19C at 5 AM!) going back to the 80sF/30sC during the day. The nice thing is watching flocks of migratory birds going around as they start going south.
---
I loved crucified santa, pity the pic is so low res. Here is a slightly larger version:
(http://mattstone.blogs.com/photos/christmas_pics/santa-jesus.jpg)
http://mattstone.blogs.com/photos/christmas_pics/santa-jesus.html
Thanks, Zono - I've saved it and bookmarked that site.
Pretty colours here, too, but it was -2C / 28.4F here last night. The days are clear and sunny - for now.
We'll be having peak autumn color here this weekend. I'll try to get a decent photo.
:UPDATE:
It's been beautiful here! I've been trying to get a decent photo all week, but nothing does it justice. Here's one I took off route 66:
I forget that in addition to being early for spring, you are late for winter. :)
See attached for the dominant colour this time of year. ::)
admittedly it will be +17C next week, but it's my patriotic duty to play up the image of the Great White North.
It's very pretty, all the same!
Oh, I had a grin on my face looking at it :D - until I realized I'd be looking at it (intermittently) until May... :-X
Fall 2011
The autumn leaf color is peaking here and it's all I can do to go anywhere without wanting to stop and take a photo. There's a part of me though, that believes that no photo can possibly match the feeling of the moment when the sunlight is beaming through golden foliage and the bark smells like spice and the leaves make a soft tap as they land on the forest floor. So I just soak it in and am glad to have been there to love it.
The other day the Opsalette and I were riding along and I noticed osage oranges (http://www.google.com/search?q=osage+orange&hl=en&rlz=1G1GGLQ_ENUS364&biw=999&bih=592&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=FXOlToCKJuHz0gGeitWYBQ&ved=0CGAQsAQ) lying by the roadside. It occurred to me that I hadn't stopped to pick any up in ages. So I pulled over and the O'lette grabbed some of these strange fruits and tossed them on the car floor.
We took them home and placed them in a wooden bowl, where they sit and scent the room with their interesting lime-grapefuit aroma. Ahhh, what could be better than a bowl of pirated osage oranges on a fine October afternoon? It's hard to believe I've gone through so much of her life without sharing this tradition with her!
Autum colors are splashing the trees here in cowland and deer family walk in my backyard.
I have harvested my Italian jalapenos (from seeds my grand ma gave me!!!) and C. and I are currently working at embroidering our Christmas (Yule) table cloth...
cross your fingrs... I am very doubtful it will make it on the table of Xmas 2011 :D
^ that can become a new tradition: celebrating the new bits of embroidery each year. ;)
I took this standing in my garden yesterday morning. Foggy, but it cleared up nicely later.
(http://i647.photobucket.com/albums/uu198/RamblingSyd/dawn-1.jpg)
Wow, what a beautiful picture! I love the silhouetted foliage in the foreground.
That picture is really wonderful David!
Thank you, Ladies! I just went out of the front door about 8.15 and happened to see it. Lucky. ;D
That's really lovely, DavidH!
What a beautiful view regardless of season. :)
Niiiice... well done you!
We're caught in that wacky winter front and it's snowing, here. Most unusual for Autumn in the southern U.S.
Snow? That's bad luck. We very rarely get any before December.
Might get up into the 80's today, unless it rains again.
This October has been a real green one-- but odd. Cool nights, but warm days has confused most of the local trees.
It'll be like a few years ago-- sudden ice-storm forming on green leaves, breaking the backs of 100's of beautiful trees in the process...
It was actually quite warm yesterday, although the atmosphere is generally autumny. I sweated a good deal despite wearing only a windbreaker.
I the next side streets the trees seem to have decided (absent strong winds) collectively to drop their leaves the night before yesterday. One day nothing, the next I am wading through them.
Leaves are the snowfall of autumn....
:D
(http://cdn.svcs.c2.uclick.com/c2/5da7db90ccf5012e2f9100163e41dd5b)
I really don't want snow this winter--- especially not ice- I hate being stuck at work or worse the fire station; trying to sleep there is just nuts-way to busy 24/7.
Leaves are starting to really turn here they are lovely-- I was afraid that due to the heat this summer that many would just dump them and store that lovely glucose but it seems that many had a good recovery and are changing slowly.
Since there was a bit of snow last year, I do not expect much this time around.
They got about five inches of snow just west of here, and it wreaked havoc on the trees that still had leaves. Poor trees.
Today it's all melting, melting... like the wicked witch of the west!
Ah, another year is past, and Autumn starts tomorrow in our hemisphere. The leaves are changing color around here and the nights and mornings have been noticeably cooler.
Last weekend we went to a local pick-your orchard run by some friends of ours and had caramel apples. Oh, there's nothing so celebrational autumnal as a golden delicious apple just loaded with hot caramel!
The dark nights are already closing in here. I hate it.
I have pears, plums, two varieties of grapes, raspberries and cantaloupe ripe in the yard, and that's just the fruit. :D
The winter garden is in, and the little rows of seedlings are poking their chubby little brassica cotyledons above the soil.
Quote from: GriffinThe dark nights are already closing in here. I hate it.
Me, too. Yesterday was the Equinox.
I like to think of it as better sleeping weather!
Wish I could say the same for my garden, Aggie. It has been neglected due to voracious mosquito activity in our area.
I hope to get back to it as soon as the chill deters the winged carnivores.
Quote from: OpsaI like to think of it as better sleeping weather!
In your case that's understandable, but over here we haven't really had a summer at all. This year we have no nostalgic longings for kicking dead leaves and getting the fire-irons ready.
Quote from: Opsa on September 23, 2012, 04:23:30 PM
I like to think of it as better sleeping weather!
Wish I could say the same for my garden, Aggie. It has been neglected due to voracious mosquito activity in our area.
I hope to get back to it as soon as the chill deters the winged carnivores.
'Twas the summer heat that kept me away; now that we are back to sub-30 daytime highs, I'm soaking up what's left of summer as much as possible. I've been kayaking and swimming (briefly!) muchly, of late.
And of course, in southern climes, spring is well under way. All my roses are sprouting, there is blossom on many trees in people's gardens, my #$%@^%&$% lawn is growing like crazy, practically have to mow it twice a week. Even the "Summer frogs" as Mrs Blue calls them have started to call from our pond. Even been able to go out during the day with just a short sleeved shirt on - much better!
Making pear butter today, as the trees need picking out soon. I've so far kept up on the plums by eating each day's crop of windfalls. Perfectly ripe!
Quote from: Aggie on September 25, 2012, 12:51:09 AM
Making pear butter today, as the trees need picking out soon. I've so far kept up on the plums by eating each day's crop of windfalls. Perfectly ripe!
That sounds absolutely marvelous.
One year a friend of ours pressed fresh cider, to which the grown-ups added some ginger brandy. It was too yummy. Gotta ask what he's doing with that press this year.
Another pair of friends have persimmons ripening. They bought the house a year ago and don't know what to do with the persimmons. I suggested making jelly. Anyone know what else to do with them?
Mmm.... dry them and make persimmon punch:
http://www.organicauthority.com/juicy-spirits/sujeonggwa-persimmon-punch-recipe.html
(http://www.organicauthority.com/images/stories/organic-food/sujeonggwa-ccflcr-gliuoo.jpg)
Just eat them when ripe, too. I imagine they'd be good baked, as well. They have their own spicy flavour, so they wouldn't need much to make a good crisp.
To store pears, I'm just tossing dicing them peel on, tossing them with a very little bit of veggie oil and baking them until they start to brown. Then I'm freezing them in reusable containers. Easier than canning, and I have the freezer space.
[picture of Homer Simpson drooling]
:)
Today I bought pumpkin bagels. They smell marvelous! But sometimes flavored bagels smell better than they taste. I hope that these taste anywhere near as lovely as they smell.
BTW: Trader Joe's Pumpkin Bagels taste even better than they smell!
This year the regulars from my now defunct children's theater and I are performing in the local Haunted House. We are going to be The Magelwurzels, a creepy Victorian era family that has mysteriously gone insane.
The name came from some curiosity about the carving of mangel wurtzel beets, rhutabagas and turnips to make "punkies", a sort of small jack-o-lantern not often seen in the U.S. We are going to attempt to make some for our front porch porch. Anyone done these and have any pointers?
My understanding is that the greater difficulty in carving these small vegetables is what led to USAmurkins substituting pumpkins. Sharp knives, cups or small shallow bowls to help steady the items, and very careful fingers is, what I've heard for tips.
Don't forget to post photos! :)
The whole concept of Autumn is a bit lost in South FL but here in Manila where the humidity is as high as the worst days of August in FL the idea of falling leaves and pumpkin carving seems a bit foreign.
:hot-here:
Can you carve a coconut or something?
How about this (http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1HHojvrHNYo/TM3TCKYWH1I/AAAAAAAAANE/Wl-Ex8h2vBk/s1600/sand+pumpkin.JPG)?
Or this?
(http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2622/4004899937_90a6ddda7f_z.jpg)
^ :mrgreen: ;) ;D
Hey! We carved our punkies last night, and it was surprisingly fun to have to figure them out.
First we chopped off the bottom because they were not flat down there, and so we could set them over a small glass coaster with a tea candle for easy lighting. Then we chopped off the "hat" and opened a hole for the smoke to come through. We then just hollowed out the insides, leaving a sturdy wall between the skin and the candle area. Th'O'lette and I sat on the front porch and whittled away and talked, and it felt very old-fashioned and fun. The turnips were way easier to hollow out than the rhutabaga, which was almost like wood or cork.
We carved little faces in them. The turnips we carved straight through, but the rutabaga had a very thick wall. The light doesn't shine through except where his face is carved out. The turnips glow all over when lit, like lanterns and are very charming.
We are inspired to grow our own punkie materials in the garden next year.
They look fun, with the bonus of more happy memories.
Update us on how they hold up compared to pumpkins?