BS: Signs of Autumn

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: keberoxu
Date: 18 Sep 17 - 03:10 PM

The maple leaves are just beginning to change color.

Sadly, the storm-force winds scheduled to blow this week will probably take their toll on trees and foliage alike.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Senoufou
Date: 22 Oct 16 - 05:46 PM

Got a bit over-excited in Asda, due to huge bins full of gorgeous pumpkins. Huge ones only £1, so bought two. Also got a couple of those large containers of sweets for the visiting village children in their Hallowe'en costumes. And a load of tea-lights to put in the pumpkins. (I light them up every night in the week before the 31st) Husband and I tried on lots of the masks on sale, skulls and witches etc. Can't wait to carve the faces into those fat pumpkins!
I do love Hallowe'en.

Our big apple tree has now been savagely pruned. I felt a bit sad as it's quite small now. And this morning, it had dropped one lovely last apple on the lawn, which made me feel dreadfully guilty and sorry for it. Never mind, it will no doubt grow huge again in no time.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Bill D
Date: 22 Oct 16 - 05:14 PM

Twice as many leaves on the ground as there were yesterday.... but to be fair to the leaves, it was 30 degrees F cooler and the wind was blowing...ummm.. energetically. I have 'some' grass that ought to be mowed, but if the leaves cover it first it can wait till Spring.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 Oct 16 - 03:38 PM

Returned to New England after ten days in Arizona. In the southern tier of the New England states where I live, fall foliage is peaking, the colors are sensational. Today, also, the wind came back, that withering dry cold wind that showed up earlier this month; it will put paid, as it blows the next several days, to a lot of the leaves, and then it will be bare trees.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: CupOfTea
Date: 07 Oct 16 - 09:46 AM

Perhaps all the yard signs moved to Ohio? We sure have them in plentitude in northern Ohio.

Along with a good crop of presidential preferences - we always get those because Ohio is considered a significant state to carry - we also have many school levy signs. (state school funding here is based on local real estate taxes, so each suburb has it's own levies up for a vote every couple years)

I'm glad that some of the nasty billboards that flourished during the summer because of the Republican convention here have long vanished.

Joanne in Cleveland

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: keberoxu
Date: 06 Oct 16 - 01:42 PM

I saw an Everybody Sucks sign, or some such.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Donuel
Date: 30 Sep 16 - 10:31 AM

The most remarkable SIGNS OF AUTUMN tHIS YEAR IS THAT THERE ARE NO SIGNS.

No yard signs appear as usual imploring us to vote for tweedle dum or tweedle dee. Not in Maryland or Virginia. I googled other cities and found the same phenome.

Where have all the yard signs gone, long time passing?

I suppose we would prefer to vote for decency but for one reason or another people were not given a decent choice.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Senoufou
Date: 30 Sep 16 - 04:07 AM

Steve, the false widow hasn't been found much at all in Norfolk, it's mainly confined to the south coast and the southern counties. I'm a member of Norfolk Wildlife Trust and they were interested about ours. That's why they wanted a pic.
I expect the relatively mild winters lately have helped it to move north. It can move where it likes, if only it would avoid our bungalow!
When I said it was venomous, I didn't mean you curl up in agony and immediately die. But the bite can be painful and cause a degree of swelling. However I know they aren't aggressive.

I agree about dangerous, out-of-control dogs. We don't have any in our village, but one reads about appalling incidents elsewhere (children being savaged etc) I love dogs, and can see that it's bad owners that produce dangerous dogs.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Sep 16 - 10:30 PM

My spiders are also getting set for the seasonal change - a large one that was building a nightly web from the patio cover to a tree has now settled into a silk-covered twig on the tree and seems to be ready to leave an egg sac of some sort soon.

I've worn a couple of long sleeve tops this week, but by afternoon it's a bit warm for long sleeves on the walk back to the car.

I'll get a good rush of growth in the garden for the next six to eight weeks, so with cooler mornings I can pull weeds and liberate the tomato and pepper plants so I can see the fruits. Okra is producing until the frost also.

And I'm thinking it's time to stick my head into my sewing room and plan on some cold-weather projects. There is quite a stack of mending in there also.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 29 Sep 16 - 06:16 PM

The false widow's bite is no worse than a wasp sting and there have been very few confirmed incidents in the UK. This particular minibeast has been here for at least 130 years and is a damn sight less dangerous than out-of-control dogs. Don't get me started.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Senoufou
Date: 29 Sep 16 - 12:03 PM

Steatoda nobilis.....that's the False Widow spider. Horrible and ghastly. Gruesome and grizzly. Several have been spotted here in Norfolk (including one in our sitting room, but out it went bundled up in a tea towel bravely clutched by fearless husband.) They're a bit venomous.... The Norfolk Wildlife Trust wanted me to get a photo of it, the fools. I was screaming my head off in the back garden.

I think the house martins have finally left. I wish them Godspeed on their incredibly long journey down to Africa, and hope the wicked 'sportsmen' on the Continent who pick them off as they fly overhead get rust in their rifles.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Rumncoke
Date: 29 Sep 16 - 11:53 AM

There are some truly enormous spiders coming in this year - either the local ones are mutating, feeding really well, or there are new kinds from the south, moving north - they could easily come across on the ferry, Poole is a busy port.

There is still warmth in the sun, but the air in the morning and evenings is cool.

The poor scabby apples are not yet ripe, but they are golden delicious, grown organically and allowed to become golden most years - some years there is a storm and the whole lot is knocked off the branches whilst still green.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 28 Sep 16 - 07:16 PM

We see squabbling skeins of Canada geese every day here, heading from Bude Marshes to Maer Lake, a distance of half a mile.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Charmion
Date: 28 Sep 16 - 07:04 PM

I have a flipping colony of spiders in my cellar, all busy webbing the shelving and the wine. I try not to take it personally.

A week after the Equinox, autumn is now setting in for real, after the hottest summer on record. No frost yet, but night-time temperatures are reaching down low among the single digits.

I saw a southbound skein of Canada geese today. It's early for them to leave, so perhaps they were heading for the marshes of Marlborough Township.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: keberoxu
Date: 28 Sep 16 - 05:24 PM

Spiders doing Morris Dance -- where is Terry Pratchett when you want him!

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Senoufou
Date: 28 Sep 16 - 04:10 AM

Hahahaha Jim! A Morris side of huge spiders! Would they all wear baldricks? I should think they'd be Border, not Cotswold don't you?
Or maybe North West Clog, with eight feet apiece.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Senoufou
Date: 27 Sep 16 - 03:16 PM

Steve, there is no way on this Earth I'd 'get up close' to a spider. I'd rather eat my own leg. I accept what you say, our friends, essential to the ecosystem and all that. But the very nature of a phobia is irrational and overwhelming. I couldn't even go into a pet shop where they had those giant tarantulas in a tank. Not even in the car park. Not even drive past...
I'm ashamed of this, but can do nothing about it.
In Senegal I have been known to emerge screaming from a primitive toilet shed with my trousers round my ankles, having spotted a MONSTER spider on the wall.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 27 Sep 16 - 12:41 PM

Not an arachnophobe, but I have to admit to having become quite alarmed at the size of the ones here lately - you imagine you hear thm stamping around begfore you see them - I'm sure they'll form a Morris Side when there are enough of them
Jim Carrroll

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Sep 16 - 12:32 PM

But those spiders are your friends and they're harmless. A vital part of the domestic ecosystem, definitely. In fact, close up they are beautiful in their own way, a lovely synergy of form and function. Good ones to get up close to are the garden orb web ones, which won't run away if you're careful. Get yer magnifying glass out and have a good look, or take a photo on macro setting. They're gorgeous I tell you. Most of my clan are irrationally scared stiff of spiders but they know I won't countenance unwarranted slaughter!

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Senoufou
Date: 27 Sep 16 - 11:28 AM

"...sending spiders to their doom by putting them outside..." GOOD!!!

I don't mind those spindly fragile-looking ones, except their blasted webs are all over the house. But one look at a 'real' spider and it's either me or it. So far my husband has agreed I stay and the spiders go.
I'm a wildlife enthusiast, but the trouble is, with a phobia one can't control the reaction. It's instant and petrifying. I shake for ages afterwards and imagine yet more of the buggers running across the bed or up the walls. I even have a recurring nightmare where one appears on my pillow. One of these days I'll have a heart attack and the spiders will have won.
It's funny though, I have no fear at all of rats, mice or snakes (and I've seen some very venomous ones in W Africa)

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: CupOfTea
Date: 27 Sep 16 - 10:15 AM

First pot of hot tea after a recordbreaking hot summer of iced-to-the-max tea.

The alarm clock goes off, and its still dark out, dagnabbit.

All the stores are sporting Christmas goods.

The lifeguard stands and swim area buoys are gone from the lakefront beach.

Dance season: Monthly English Country & Contra dances start up again.

Concord grape time is done, and the local apples and cider show up in the grocery stores.

Joanne in Cleveland, where the trees are just starting to show colors

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 27 Sep 16 - 06:31 AM

You may be sending the spiders in your house to their doom by putting them outside. The large, fast-running Tegenarias belong indoors, so (regardless of what I'm promising Mrs Steve I'll be doing with them) I quietly release them under the settee or fridge where they'll do good by scoffing the silverfish and other undesirables. Same goes for those daddy-long-legs spiders with the little bodies and impossibly tangly legs. They would just die outside in this weather. I just wish they wouldn't crap in the mugs on my mug tree, that's all! And the ones in the bath have fallen in, never entered via the plug hole, and flushing them down means certain death.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 27 Sep 16 - 04:29 AM

Signs of Autumn - around here, the rain gets colder
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: keberoxu
Date: 26 Sep 16 - 04:27 PM

Dug out the parka with the faux-fur trimming the hood. And wearing socks, rather than sandaled bare feet.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Senoufou
Date: 23 Sep 16 - 04:07 AM

Oh Nigel, that's one of the saddest songs there is. 'Forever Autumn' by The Moody Blues.
'...now you're not here..." Whenever I lose a cat to old age, I hear those words. Gulp...

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 22 Sep 16 - 05:48 PM

The summer sun is fading as the year grows old,
And darker days are drawing near,
The winter winds will be much colder,

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Senoufou
Date: 22 Sep 16 - 05:47 PM

It's cranefly time once again. Have seen some of those huge ones (Tupila maxima) which are new here. Plus huge spiders coming in from the garden to disport themselves on our bedroom wall. (Brave husband puts them outside again)
No colour change as yet on the trees, except the poor horse-chestnuts have been attacked yet again by the leaf-miner, and their leaves are prematurely orange (ie dead)
The house martins in our village have had a very good summer, with hot weather bringing out the flying insects for them to hoover up.
Our Bramley apple tree has produced a good crop, but rather small fruit due to lack of rain. Picked four large binbags full, for the Harvest Supper this weekend. (apple pies and cream for the dessert)
We draw our curtains now at 7-30pm. As a funny old boy over the road always says with a grin, "Winter drawers on!"
It's my birthday next week (St Michael's Day) so I love this time of year!

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: keberoxu
Date: 22 Sep 16 - 02:50 PM

Today's the autumnal equinox. What do you observe?

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Mrrzy
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 08:02 PM

Nooooooooooooooooo!

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: gnu
Date: 15 Sep 10 - 04:41 PM

JEEPERS! NOT GOOD!

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Cats
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 04:16 AM

Last night we Cried the Neck in our hamlet. A sure sign.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: open mike
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 02:58 AM

i found a large caterpillar 3 - 4 " long and it seems to be from a moth that prefers ceanothus bushes...it has formed a cocoon and may not
emerge til next year...

crickets are singing and Orion is in the sky.
Amaryllis (naked ladies) are blooming and the
night air is cool enough to break out the feather
comforter.

the month name ends in Ember it will be obers or embers for the rest of the year now..

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: GUEST,pattyClink
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 10:04 PM

Slim pickin's down south yet. The heat has returned for another whack and the tough damn crape myrtles are still clinging to branches of blooms.

However, there are little flocks of strange birds in town, and hummingbirds passing through on their way to the Yucatan. And I saw a big bird circling high on a thermal, I don't know if that's a fall thing but that's when I see it.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 05:01 AM

Last March I found some Cyclamen leaves on the river bank and knew that I'd have to wait until September to see them flower. And last Wednesday they did - 16 blooms! The species was Cyclamen hederifolium, which is probably not native to Britain. Either someone planted them on the bank or they seeded themselves from someone's garden (perhaps ants carried the seeds?). A bit of a bittersweet experience, really; the hoped-for event happened - but it also means that the year is on the wane.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: ragdall
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 02:07 AM

Wednesday morning ice had to be scraped from the car windows. My Green Ash is quickly becoming a yellow Ash. The Ash down the street has already dropped half its leaves. My lawn was covered with migrating sparrows this morning. Children returned to school this week.

rags

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: LadyJean
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 12:12 AM

We have black squirrels in Pittsburgh too, but I never thought of them as ninjas, or as scary. They are found, particularly in a neighborhood called Squirrel Hill.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: gnu
Date: 10 Sep 10 - 08:34 PM

Windows shut and ACs on for over a week... 45 Humidex... now, I REFUSE to close my windows and have sweat pants, a hat and a sweatshirt on. 14C, rain and breezy. We went from high summer to late fall in 24 hours.

Not a sign of fall... a sign of an early and LONG hard winter.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Joe_F
Date: 10 Sep 10 - 06:26 PM

Switched from salads to cooked vegetables at dinner.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: LadyJean
Date: 10 Sep 10 - 12:23 AM

I'm having trouble with a knee. Applying a heated cat works wonders.
There were geese flying over my backyard yesterday. The stores have bulbs.
(I'm buying tulips!)

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Micca
Date: 09 Sep 10 - 04:53 AM

Starting to get my stuff together for the Getaway, charge batteries in cameras, dig out American fitting cables,clear SD photo cards,etc....It Must be Autumn.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Cats
Date: 08 Sep 10 - 03:37 PM

Increasingly heavy dews at night and the hens have stopped laying.....

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: gnu
Date: 08 Sep 10 - 08:24 AM

I heard Canada Geese at 7:30AM (Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada).

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 08 Sep 10 - 06:12 AM

All the kids are back to school, now I can go away for a break somewhere at a cheaper price. I can still enjoy reasonably good weather and take in the Autumn colours in peace.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: fat B****rd
Date: 08 Sep 10 - 05:54 AM

It pissed down in sunny Scotland yesterday and the wind flattened my sunflowers.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 11:20 PM

A few hummingbirds appear in our urban yard. They don't appear every year, but when they do, it is this time of year. Earliest fall.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 08:49 PM

Being a cat bed is great honor even though a warm TV can also do the trick.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Donuel
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 08:29 PM

Signs of Autism can be seen as early as age 2.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: gnu
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 04:47 PM

Last week it was 40 to 45 Humidex. This AM, I had to shut my windows. High of 15C with rain tomorrow. I am gonna write a god damned letter! (Apologies to That Canadian Guy/Glen Foster.)

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Bill D
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 04:44 PM

I saw Monarchs last week in the DC area...

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Bettynh
Date: 07 Sep 10 - 12:38 PM

LOL, Lady, I've called high summer, with its heat and humididty "dead cat weather" for many years. They just lay about in the shade waiting for cool.

Our skunks are beautiful now, with their long silky coats.

Meadow saffron and garlic chives are blooming.