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Gathering up the leaves for compost
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I thought you might like to see a picture of where I live now. This was taken last year - this year it looks like the leaves will all be on the ground before we get some sun to show up the colours!
I am using the lawnmower to blow or push the leaves into rows ready to pick them up and pile them a foot deep on the garden for the winter.
In spring, I will till them in - it's great compost!
Barbara, my wife, has just walked in with the last gladiola of the season. We have already had several nights of frost and it is snowing this morning. It is wet snow and not staying on the ground, temp. The temperature is 2 C.
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Autumn is our favourite time of the year. The oppressive heat of Summer is gone but the weather is still glorious. We have mild, sunny days with fantastic sunsets, the smell of leaves burning, a last chance to still enjoy the outdoors before Winter sets in, and, of course, the overwhelming display of color as the leaves turn every shade of red, orange and brown.
We expect the Fall colors to be at their peak in about two weeks time. Driving up to Detroit last Saturday for a baseball game we noticed that many trees were already changing color quite noticeably.
It is also the time for Halloween, pumpkins and cornstalks. This is a very well established tradition here and most people will put up some kind of decoration outside their home reflecting the colors and atmosphere of the season.
It is a fun time, picking out our own pumpkins at a local farm is something we do each year. It is also cheaper that way, by the time the supermarkets get them the prices have tripled.
Freshly made apple cider, usually served warm with cinnamon, is handed out to customers at many shops during this season, usually with a good selection of cookies as well. The smell creates a very inviting atmosphere.
Around here it is also a time for hawk migrations. Birds of prey by the thousand fly down out of Canada and head South on the air currents. They funnel themselves through a narrow corridor which separates the USA from Canada just East of Detroit. It is an amazing sight.
My wife and I have one more weekend away planned, a long weekend at a Bed and Breakfast in upstate New York. Then it will be time to prepare for the onslaught of Winter. The year is passing by quickly.
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Autumn in Battleford
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I thought you might like to see what
Autumn looks like
in this neck
of the woods!
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Here in the North East of the USA the autumn is spectacular.
It begins around now and every day the leaves get more beautiful. Gorgeous reds, oranges, yellows and golds.
People over here travel for miles to see the leaves in Maine and Vermont but I can't believe that they are any more beautiful than right here in New York.
On Saturdays and Sundays the roads to up-state New York get jammed with 'leaf peepers'. They ride up into the mountains to see the trees and to buy autumn produce.
New York State is famous for it' apples and there are many farms where they let you pick your own and they sell apple cider, cider donuts, pumpkins and autumn decorations for your house.
I have a few friends who have moved south or west and they all say that they miss New York most of all in the autumn.
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People assume that Canada is all snow in winter and that the leaves turn red in the autumn. True, for the most part, but not here.
Vancouver Island is an anomaly. We get a lot of rain, the leaves, for most part, turn yellow (except the sumac which would turn red anywhere).
Christmas day it will probably rain. It usually does. Frankly, I could issue a weather forecast in late October reading: 'Rain until May,' and be about right!
Your autumn stories from Canada and USA
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Find out about Autumn Down Under!
Copyright (c) 2000-2001 Sue Kelly