Skywatch: Fall Clouds

A little time traveling back to late fall when a herd of clouds was moving across our sky.

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Skywatch: Fall Clouds

SkyWatch Friday: In The Pink

A Hazy Sunrise

(Photo:  Jo Smith on 10/21/09)

The day turned out nice despite the haze persisting throughout.

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SkyWatch Friday: In The Pink

Sunday Walk

Jo and I (and the dogs) usually take our afternoon walk around four o'clock. With the end of Daylight Savings Time, our Sunday walk was actually taken an hour later than Saturday's. There was a dramatic diffenence in the sun's intensity and the length of shadows. The photo above is our road out -- our driveway -- about three quarters of a mile from the house. It is up near the gate, which is normally open, and is our "turn around" point where we reverse course and head back to the house. This is one of the best sections of our road because it's relatively flat and isn't prone to washing out.

Our driveway is technically a county road. It runs through land owned by our closest neighbor. Most of it is wooded, although he's partially cleared a few sections like this one where his horse, Pretty Boy, is grazing.

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Sunday Walk

A Little Miscellaneous

Dogwood leaves and berries.















Turn out the lights; the garden's over.














Our road out ... up near the gate.













The dill was the only plant in the garden not damaged by our light freeze.






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A Little Miscellaneous

Sunday, 11/18/07

More clouds were around today, especially this afternoon. That kept today from getting quite as warm as yesterday, though the temperature still made it up into the mid-seventies. That's still mighty warm for mid-November -- warm enough that we didn't need a fire in the wood stove again this evening. That's fine with me. The less firewood we burn, the less I must cut, haul and split. The warmer temperatures are helping Jo out too. It usually cooler -- and often damp and drizzly -- this time of year. Those conditions make it difficult on a potter. It takes longer for her work to dry enough so she can continue working on a piece -- like trimming the bottom and, in some cases, adding a handle. Jo's been known to dry her thrown pieces inside and old refrigerator fitted with a light bulb, but that's a tricky process that demands more time and attention. If the work dries too fast, it may crack.

Sunday, 11/18/07

Sweet Gum

The sweet gums are about the only trees left still holding onto colorful leaves. The oaks are the last to lose their leaves, but they're not very colorful -- usually just brown.

Until today I hadn't noticed that there are no sweet gum balls this year. Evidently, the same late spring freeze that got our oaks and walnuts also killed the sweet gum blooms. I'm certainly not heartbroken at the absence of sweet gum ball, but the small, seed-eating birds will miss them.

When we were up in Springfield, MO, during October, I noticed that they had a good crop of acorns and black walnuts. They got the same late freeze that we did, but being farther north, their trees hadn't started blooming yet.

Sweet Gum

Fall Color Mostly On The Ground

We had some gusty south wind early in the week. Now most of the colorful fall leaves are on the ground, although a hickory at the top of the first hill on the way out from our place was still showing some bright yellow.

Fall Color Mostly On The Ground

Finally Fall

The tree leaves are finally starting to color and it's beginning to look a little more like fall around these parts. The color change is two or three weeks behind schedule which seems to be the case in most of the rest of the country. Some claim that the color change is governed more by day length than by temperature. I cannot believe that. Our days have been getting shorter right on schedule as they do every year. It's the cooler temperatures that are lagging behind.

Finally Fall