The fall has been astonishing here. The color was intense and lasted for about 3 weeks, and now we are in the wind down stage where there are small patches of color but you can see farther into the woods. The ashes have replaced the maples as the dominant tree and they give the area a warm brown look.

Saturday I stood out in the yard listening to the clatter as the light wind blew. I wasn't sure whether the noise was from the branches hitting each other or the leaves rattling against each other and the steel roofs. Then a particularly sharp gust hit the big maple by the stone wall, releasing a cloud of maple seed helicopters. The air was full of these tiny aviators and they rose and fell and whirled around the house and finally fell to earth, littering the ground with enough potential maple trees to reforest the entire county.

This morning I was in the barn, feeding the sheep at sunrise. As the sun peeked over the horizon, the hundreds of birds that had taken shelter in the barn for the night came awake and began to plan their days' activities, as well as comment on how nice the accomodations had been, all at the tops of their tiny lungs.

I hope you all are having as good a fall. (Or spring for those in Oz-land and points south) These mental pictures help me when things seem bleak.

CamiSu