Fall Is Late
On Tuesday, I saw Orion in the sky on my early morning walk. To me, it meant the days were growing shorter. Because I wasn't used to seeing that many stars in the morning. Usually, the sky had turned a little more opaque, allowing only the brighter stars and the planets to shine through.
That reminds me. I watched The Straight Story last night. It opens and closes on a shot of the stars. The hero, 73-year-old Alvin Straight, learns that his brother Lyle, with whom he's been estranged for 10 years or more, has had a stroke. Nearly blind and walking with two canes because of his bad hip that he refuses to have surgery on (possibly because he can't afford it), Straight rides his tractor across Iowa to Wisconsin to see his brother, saying that he wants to sit with Lyle and watch the stars, like they did when they were kids growing up on a farm in Minnesota.
Anyway, what I meant to say is that I've had several conversations with people this week about how late the fall foliage color is this year. On Wednesday, I was remembering our trip to Vermont about two weeks ago now, and how the leaves seemed to be at or near peak color up there. And yet we didn't have much color here yet. Well, on my way home from Springfield yesterday, all the trees along I-91 seemed to have burst into color overnight. I couldn't see them in the morning, because the fog and mist was so thick.
However, it's still oddly warm for late October. The forecast for Greenfield is calling for highs in the 60s and 70s all week and lows in the 60s tonight and then dropping into the 40s. Maybe I didn't need to harvest all those green tomatoes after all.
That reminds me. I watched The Straight Story last night. It opens and closes on a shot of the stars. The hero, 73-year-old Alvin Straight, learns that his brother Lyle, with whom he's been estranged for 10 years or more, has had a stroke. Nearly blind and walking with two canes because of his bad hip that he refuses to have surgery on (possibly because he can't afford it), Straight rides his tractor across Iowa to Wisconsin to see his brother, saying that he wants to sit with Lyle and watch the stars, like they did when they were kids growing up on a farm in Minnesota.
Anyway, what I meant to say is that I've had several conversations with people this week about how late the fall foliage color is this year. On Wednesday, I was remembering our trip to Vermont about two weeks ago now, and how the leaves seemed to be at or near peak color up there. And yet we didn't have much color here yet. Well, on my way home from Springfield yesterday, all the trees along I-91 seemed to have burst into color overnight. I couldn't see them in the morning, because the fog and mist was so thick.
However, it's still oddly warm for late October. The forecast for Greenfield is calling for highs in the 60s and 70s all week and lows in the 60s tonight and then dropping into the 40s. Maybe I didn't need to harvest all those green tomatoes after all.