BS: Signs of Autumn

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: keberoxu
Date: 06 Oct 16 - 01:42 PM

I saw an Everybody Sucks sign, or some such.

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: CupOfTea
Date: 19 Sep 17 - 11:42 PM

A whole couple blocks had been planted with the same sort of tree- think it is a honey locust. (Tiny oval leaves) this year, for some reason, they have all chosen the same day to turn color and drop leaves in glorious unison. The smallness of the individual leaves and the uniform color made the sidewalks look like they were paved with gold.

Joanne in Cleveland

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Teribus
Date: 20 Sep 17 - 04:30 AM

I suppose as temperatures fall and as more inclement weather sweeps in, the extent of drooling in Kernow will decrease.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Iains
Date: 22 Sep 17 - 02:36 PM

The last gale dropped most of the hazel nuts and now the berries on the holly trees are turning red. A shame they always get eaten before Xmas.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: keberoxu
Date: 23 Sep 17 - 07:08 PM

Last night, with no heat and dropping temperatures,
I had to throw onto the bed,
the Ohmigod-This-Thing-Is-Heavy quilt.

But tomorrow, temperatures and humidity shoot way up
and the air-conditioning will be called for.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 24 Sep 17 - 06:25 AM

Here in the West of Ireland the rain starts to get colder
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: keberoxu
Date: 26 Sep 17 - 02:07 PM

The professional landscapers have made their seasonal re-appearance, and their motor vehicles are illegally parked and blocking the streets and the lanes.
While they clean up people's trees and lawns and stuff.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Sep 17 - 05:12 PM

Texas is slow to cool in the fall, though we had a wonderful tease of fall week of temperatures in the 80s from the 4th through the 10th of September. Now we're back into the 90s again and humid. Hoping for rain. The signs are that leaves are beginning to fall even before cool weather would normally loosen their grip. And so many of the leaves that land in my yard are from neighboring properties.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 27 Sep 17 - 08:26 PM

Suffled through fallen leaves on my way down the road tonight.
Hundreds of lovely apples and plums on my daughter's trees.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Mr Red
Date: 28 Sep 17 - 04:47 AM

A swallow made its nest in the bus shelter see pics - some photo are blurred out of deference to the birds.
But if they are the only ones there will be a very small line on the telephone wires, maybe they have already gone!
The GFs farm seems to attract more swallows - all that BS (or should it be cowshit?)

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: keberoxu
Date: 28 Sep 17 - 01:33 PM

Still no heat in my rental apartment --
it will come, just not tonight.
So since tonight is going to be much cooler than it has been of late,
must again grab the
Oh-My-God-This-Thing-Is-Heavy quilt
and
plan on sleeping under it tonight.

All the humidity is blowing away in the breeze.

There's a glorious phrase in the book "Edinburgh"
by Robert Louis Stevenson
when he describes a day going from humid to dry:

"the sky has drunk up all the clouds."

Goodness, that man could write.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 28 Sep 17 - 02:55 PM

It was going in reverse today in Edinburgh, Keberoxu, but at least, no rain!

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: JHW
Date: 01 Oct 17 - 05:34 AM

Lots of leaves in the gutters and on the paths but they're last year's. Council can't afford to clear them away anymore. (Darlington UK)

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Donuel
Date: 01 Oct 17 - 06:12 PM

By day cloud like shadows race across the ground as birds practice for migration. By night loud honking geese V their way in near darkness before sleep.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 01 Oct 17 - 07:45 PM

Well I came back from our holiday in Madeira last Thursday to find that the grass had grown like mad, as it has done all through this wettish summer. Generally I charge round with the mower's mulcher plate in place, but this time it was too long so I had to collect the clippings. At this time of year that's no disaster as I can scoop up tons of fallen leaves and mix them with the grass clippings in heaps. That way you get leaf mould that rots down so fast that you can use it next spring as the grass clippings add nitrogen that's lacking in the fallen leaves alone. That idea came from the estimable Bob Flowerdew, whom God preserve, who dubbed the resulting product "accelerated leaf mould." So tomorrow I'm out there raking up shitloads of fallen leaves, and I'll be repeating the exercise several times until November.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Gallus Moll
Date: 02 Oct 17 - 06:27 PM

I am breaking my heart as my copper beech, planted when the house was built in 1863, is losing her leaves and shedding her beech nuts for the final time. This magnificent tree has quietly been suffering from spiral fractures, caused I think by the increased winds / lack of shelter in the years since the mature pine woods behind my house were cut down by the local authority. Even if I had known and realised, the way the tree has grown would not have allowed for any suitable pruning or support.... and now the end is near and I am so sad, so sorry - - with a tree like this I thought I was a custodian, sharing maybe 50 or 60 years with it till the next guardian took over; instead I am the person who has - reluctantly - had to accept the advice of professionals and the evidence of my own eyes that the time has come.....and I can't bear it.
But neither can I risk the tree falling onto the road, harming someone.
So - what I am hoping is that some of the poor tree's wood can be seasoned and then made into a piece of furniture (there are two or three local craftsmen in this area)for the house or garden.
I have gathered nuts to plant and grow -- there are already different ages of offspring of this tree in the garden.   
Trying to think positively - - but crying inside.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: keberoxu
Date: 02 Oct 17 - 07:31 PM

I'm sorry, Gallus Moll, accept my sympathy.

Where I was raised, a form of chestnut tree,
known locally as a Buckeye tree
because of the nuts' appearance,
was native, and a few old ones still stood.

I often got a close look at an huge thick old Buckeye tree
that was supposed to be several centuries in age.
An enormous trumpet vine grew literally next to the tree roots and
wound itself around the trunk;
the vine was big and thick and covered in its own bark.

If either tree or vine went down, I would feel
the same way that you feel now.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 02 Oct 17 - 08:07 PM

I know that feeling too. Our garden is sheltered mostly by elms. They haven't been dying off for many years, but this last couple of years Dutch Elm Disease has started to take them again. This year I've also lost my favourite apple tree, one which I planted thirty years ago when we first moved in, and I haven't worked out what it was that got it. Nothing to be done. I've just planted some stone pine seeds. That's the umbrella pine that you see all over Italy and the one we get our pine nuts from. At 66 I'm being a little optimistic that I'll ever harvest my own pine nuts, but hey!

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Oct 17 - 02:16 PM

I've spent this afternoon making a massive stack of leaves that I've mixed with loads of fresh grass clippings. They'll rot down nicely for use in the spring. There should be a couple more batches to make if I have the energy.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Gallus Moll
Date: 04 Oct 17 - 07:07 PM

I know that when you plant trees they are for future generations, and I accept that sometimes things go wrong and one might be lost too soon due to wind or lightening or some sort of disease-----I also understand that In a forest the cycle of life requires that as new trees grow, some old ones will die, fall, decay, thus providing habitat for different creatures and funguses, and nutrients to the enrich the ground.
But - when a particular tree has a long association with a special place, is part of your life, has the graves of your pet dogs and cats and various other creatures (red squirrels, birds, a rabbit, chickens) that have passed away over the long years.... it is really hard to come to terms with the impending loss.
If the tree had been out the back, well away from the house, we could just have let nature take her course. - I'm the sort of person who saves worms on the pavement when it rains, or spiders trapped in the bath or upside down beetles; I am finding this so very hard - - never to see the dark copper glow in the sunset, or the bright gold in the mid-day sun, nor hear the rustle of breezes in the leaves, and the scattering sounds of beech nuts falling to the ground through the flurry of Autumn leaf-fall.
Thank you for your sympathy and understanding!

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 04 Oct 17 - 08:35 PM

You may never see it in its full glory, but plant another tree. Make sure that what killed your tree wasn't a soil-borne disease first (I doubt it). Maybe a different species. I love the idea that we plant for generations to come. I know that isn't much consolation.

I bought some stone pine seeds last week. They're stratifying in the fridge at the moment. Stone pines are the trees you see all over Italy, in Rome, Pompei and Sorrento. I'll be at least 95 before I see any pine nuts from them, but I'm having a go anyway. I'm not sure that Mrs Steve can countenance another thirty years...

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Gallus Moll
Date: 05 Oct 17 - 06:41 PM

How in the heck did I write 'funguses'?!    Fungi of course -- must've been too late at night!

My poor tree has succumbed to wind coming down the glen, causing 'spiral fractures' as the wind catches the branches and leaves, twists the trunk.
This has happened over many years and was not something I knew about till the tree surgeon told me and showed me.
But even if we had known way back at the start of the problem I don't think with a huge beast of a hundred and fifty four year old mature Copper Beech that anything could have been done to arrest the problem and stabilise the tree. Perhaps if it had been a spreading oak, or a much smaller /younger tree, there would have been methods (I saw one in St Andrews Square in Edinburgh which had a support and prop..... but it was a relatively little specimen.
My tree - - well, the tree for which I have been custodian for nigh on 40 years --- is very tall, much higher than the Victorian house, and the weight of even one limb must be enormous. It is going to be some operation, involving a large cherry picker, it will have to be taken down in sections. There are also telephone and Hydro Board lines involved, and a road closure -- - and ultimately the trauma of looking at the empty space where The Tree used to be - - -- -

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 05 Oct 17 - 10:14 PM

Here in the US several of the big box stores sell small potted trees as "living xmas trees" at the holiday season. It happens that Italian stone pine works well for this, and they are about $15 for a 1-2 gallon tree. I have five I've planted around the yard because they grown well in xeriscape settings. It takes about 40 years before you get the cones, and I think they're difficult to get out of the cones once you have them. If the trees are still here in another 30 years and anyone knows what they are, someone may enjoy the pine nuts. (I prefer to plant the smaller trees - it's easier to untangle roots wrapping around in the pot, and the hole one digs is much smaller! They grow fast to catch up with the more expensive and slower to get established bigger trees.)

Gallus, there is a spectacular copper beech in the Prospect Park, Brooklyn, New York City that I walked past daily as a ranger. It had a place of honor at the end of a long open field, but hopefully enough forest on one side of it to prevent the wind damage you describe. I can't identify a photo of it online now, but it was so spectacular I feel like it should be famous. Planted by Frederick Law Olmstead when he planned the park.

When autumn arrives my North Texas garden gets it's second wind. There are green tomatoes everywhere and lovely black aubergine. I've dug many pounds of sweet potatoes and left a few more for when my daughter visits next week; she loves to dig them also and sometimes you need an extra incentive to get your adult children to come visit. Whatever it takes!

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Oct 17 - 08:55 AM

Your beech tree has actually achieved around the average lifespan for the species. Beech trees aren’t as long-lived as many other forest trees.

We’ve had two nice days in a row. We get around 17°C by day and around 8° by night. It’s very pleasant sitting outside in the sun (UV3). I have to shift one ton of coal that’s just been delivered then cut up some logs. My Sungold cherry tomatoes are bravely resisting the blight and cropping very well for now. You never see them in the shops on account of their habit of splitting easily, but I reckon they’re the tastiest of the lot. I have summer sprouting broccoli, some nice kale, lots of salad leaves and plenty of spuds to harvest, as well as a spectacularly huge crop of flat-leaf parsley. Some very poor, windy weather last month saw off my French beans and runner beans prematurely. I’m sowing broad beans later. It can be too windy for them in winter but I’m having a go for the first time ever. The purple sprouting and parsnips are looking very promising. And my spring greens are up. My freezer is full of blanched broad beans.

Last week in Madeira, where it never goes below about 10°C, we discovered the delights of pitanga, aka Surinam cherry or Brazilian cherry. I’ve brought some seeds back from the ones I stole and ate raw from the B&B garden. There isn’t much hope for them here, less still any prospect of fruit, but I’ll try anything. They make the most amazing jam with a lovely grown-up flavour. I have a young loquat plant that I grew from a seed I saved from a breakfast in Florence in May. It’ll be big enough to plant out in spring. I have high hopes for it.

Subject: RE: BS: Signs of Autumn
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 06 Oct 17 - 09:25 AM

Cheers, Acme. I’ve been racking my brain as to what it was that I meant to add to the shopping list. Pine nuts!