I was supposed to be tearing down all my radio equipment so I can move the new desk into the office. I should wash the car and get that ready for long term storage. I should get the snowblower out and check that over and… Well, hell, look at that photo up there. If your Saturday looked like that, would you hang around the house and do chores inside on what is probably going to be the last nice day of the year? So a lot of the chores got pushed aside to take advantage of the amazing weather because according to the predictions for this coming week, the weather is supposed to be pretty much bleh.
It was absurdly nice, temps in the mid to high 70s, gentle breezes, warm, golden sunshine. It was absolutely glorious out.
Well, to be fair we did get a lot of work done. MrsGF and I were up shortly after dawn working on the flower beds, digging out the annuals that are long past their prime, taking down the decaying sunflowers, raking leaves. We completely filled the box of our elderly full sized Dodge truck and hauled it down to the compost site. And the trees aren’t even bare yet. The pear and maple trees haven’t even started to shed, so we’ll probably end up doing that at least twice more. I even got up on the roof and cleaned out the rain gutters full of leaves.
I admit that everything starts to look drab and dreary and brown this time of year, but even those browns are beautiful in their own way. The dark branches of the denuded trees make amazing patterns against the sky and landscape, and with the foliage starting to die back and the leaves drop, you begin to see things that you didn’t notice before, hidden behind the lush summer growth.
And there is still even a bit of color left out there if you go hunting for it. If you watch carefully there are still some plants that haven’t realized that it’s the end of the growing season and you’ll see a spark of yellow or purple or red peeking out through the grasses that are slowly starting to dry and turn brown.
I don’t understand people who think the fall is a dull, drab season. Yes, the egrets and herons are gone, as are a lot of the song birds. The spectacular flowers of summer have faded, dried up and disappeared. But they’ve been replaced by a new world with it’s own little secrets, it’s own hidden treasures. All you have to do is look.
Of course I admit it would be a lot more pleasant if I didn’t have allergies. The mold index is sky high right now according to the morning news. But I knew that already, a fact demonstrated by my watering eyes, stuffed up head and other irritating symptoms. I sound like I have a perpetual cold this time of year.
Let’s see, what else? Not much, really. MrsGF thought I might hit 1,000 miles before the end of the biking season, but I’m going to be short of that. With the weather getting colder getting out on the bike is more irritating than enjoyable. I did hit 752 miles yesterday, and I’ll probably get over 800 yet this season before the weather shuts me down. But I doubt if I’ll get much more than that. That’s fine. I had no specific goals in mind.
Time to wrap this up.
grouchyfarmer 
The leaves aren’t even turned here. It’s so odd, so warm. Usually we get a peak around Halloween with quite a bit of early color around now. It’s looking a bit drab, but still green for all that. No leaves littering the ground. I think we will end up moving our peak by a week on average due to climate change. Maybe more. It’s weird.
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A lot of trees are already completely bare here. Depends on the species. My pear tree is still green, and some of the maples have just turned. We’re well past “peak color” as they call it on the news. The weather has been a bit odd. Nothing too extreme, but it hasn’t been following normal weather patterns. I can’t point to climate change as being the cause because we’ve had years like this before. But there are definitely changes that are due to climate change. The number of ice free days on the lakes around here is almost 20 days more than what would be considered normal when compared to the historical record
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Yeah. It’s been so slow that it’s hardly a noticeable thing. But I feel like I’m starting to notice the patterns changing now. Perhaps it’s just confirmation bias. Like you said, some years are warmer. And the change is broad and large and statistical. But it feels like it. And it’s scary and funky.
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