Fall fashions

From: http://www.conservation.state.mo.us/nathis/seasons/fall/
Kansas City Region: Fall colors are just starting to turn in most of the region, but the process will begin to accelerate with cool evening temperatures predicted for this week (lows in the 40's). Sumac, Virginia creeper, poison ivy and dogwood are starting to turn red. Hackberry, redbud, honey locust, elm, ash. hickory, and cottonwood are starting to show some yellow. There is good viewing of fall color in Swope Park, White Alloe Creek CA, Burr Oak Woods CA, Maple Woods NA, and Big Buffalo Creek CA. Highways 45 and 24 make excellent drives for fall color viewing. Many trees in the Sedalia area are beginning to show fall color. Most notable are walnut, ash, and sycamore with shades of yellow. Dated 9/29/2005

We are sitting on the porch at III. The skies are overcast, the wind gusty and occasional thunder rumbles around the edges. Rain drips and, falling on the tin roof, it sounds more than what it is. To the noise of a thunderstorm in the night and what sounded like pouring rain, we got up to not even a half-inch of rain in the gauge. There will be more rain this morning and we are more or less content to sit on the porch with our morning coffee and wait it out.

I take a stroll in my green, waterproof, shoes and sweatshirt, around the clearing. I am almost wishing I could be working, cutting brush and trimming back cedar trees but I remind myself that I wished for the thunderstorm and rain and I must be satisfied. We hear crows and blue jays scolding and an occasional wild turkey's gobble. There are other bird sounds that we cannot recognize, nor name. A gray squirrel runs through the clearing and disappears into the trees. Himself catches a glimpse of a deer bounding across the trail and into a thicket. The pond was moss green yesterday, stagnant and still, but the rain has brought it back to life with raindrops stirring the surface.

A fall shopping list:
Tarps for winter.
Snowshoes and
Cross-country skies.
Ice skates, perhaps.
A yellow, "no'eastern" rain hat
to allow for rainy walks;
to keep rain off the neck
Mud boots for Himself.


Yesterday we cleared more of this old pasture and cut up some of the bigger logs for firewood, thinking forward to winter. I cut back cedars to allow more sunlight for little hardwoods and Himself used the chain saw to move the clearing back and then mowed down the tall grass.

There is some color coming to the timber. Oaks are starting to turn brown or red, just around the edges. The few walnuts have thrown off their summer foliage and the fewer cottonwoods have changed to yellow and lightened their load of leaves. One large tree in the west, which I can’t identify, is standing out from its neighbors dressed in red and orange. The fall fashion parade has just begun, giving us a preview of the coming show . . . the other side