Wetland Waves

The pond is full still from this week's rain. It is Halloween and a warm wind is blowing across the trees from the West, sending more leaves in a scatter to the earth below. Digging in one of the gardens, I found some small onions and turnips and harvested them for my lunch.
Lindley is sick with a cold. Outside everything is brown, rust and green...daylight saving ends tonight and so we begin the gradual tilt into the darkest day.

350.org - Kitty R.I.P.

Today, around the world, people gathered around "350," the safe upper limit (parts per million) of carbon in our atmosphere. We rang our church bells 350 times.

Weather patterns here by the pond: October was unseasonably cold. Yesterday we had monsoon like rains, but temperatures were about average for this time of year. The temperatures seem to ping-pong. Last week we had a thin skim of us on the pond.

Friday - our cat,the black cat, died of kidney diease....he has returned to the earth at the edge of the forest edging the hill out back.

Where Have all the flowers gone

Our first real frost last night...no more squash blossoms for me this season. I turned over the front garden. The trees are shedding their leaves faster now. We are past peak floiage. This weekend up in the White Mountains the colors were brilliant, more brilliant than I remember from the last few seasons...or does every year seem dazzling and by the time fall rolls around, I've forgotten.
The leaf peepers were out in full force and we were all mezmerized by the popping colors.

Here at Beatitude Pond life is quietening down. We've cleaned the stove out. Much more wood chopping and stacking to do before we will be completly ready for winter. Snow chances in the North - the weatherman is just saying on the local news. We might get some tonight. Brrr...

Parting Shots

Fall has returned - all to soon. This may be my last frog photo of the season. This week the wildlife was busy getting ready for the winter. On the same dawn a fox and moose crossed our backyard within minutes of each other. I saw the white tip of the fox bouncing across the back field as Lindley pointed it out to me.
A few minutes later he called to me in as I was in the shower, "Moose!" I missed it.
It was a huge bull moose, he told me.
Later in the day he went down to Beatitude Pond and watched three frolicking river otters. When I came home later, one was still swimming about, unphased by our presence.