Autumn procession

Chicory in the garden

The music of the far-away summer flutters around the Autumn seeking its former nest.

~ Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds

Cherry and sweet gum trees at the edge of the meadow.

Summer really isn’t that far away from us here on the Eastern Shore.  We still have the occasional warm and humid day.  Then a front moves through with damp and chill and wind, and it begins to feel like fall once again.  Some of the flowers (the goldenrod in particular) have gone to seed, while others continue to bloom.  The garden vegetables are still producing plenty for us to harvest, and our CSA shares have grown so big that I feel overwhelmed at times with the bounty of greens, cabbages, broccoli, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, and beets.

Puttin’ on the fall colors

I am struck by the simplicity of light in the atmosphere in the autumn, as if earth absorbed none, and out of this profusion of dazzling light came the autumnal tints.

~ Henry David Thoreau

A sly look

We have an unofficial competition going on here at the Wabi-Sabi Ranch.  It’s a race to see who can shiver the longest.  With the temperature dropping somewhat, it gets a little chilly in the house, especially at night.  M and I are being quietly stubborn while layering our clothing, neither of us wanting to be the first to cry “uncle!” and turn on the heat.

Morning sun before the clouds thinned out.

After two days of rain and clouds, the sun has come back to light up the landscape.  It is very breezy, and some of the leaves are starting to make their way to the earth like fallen stars.

Earthbound star.

I saw my first woolly bear of the season while out on my walk this morning.  He or she is predicting a mild winter for us.

Folklore has it that the wider the brown stripe, the milder the winter.

The Walktober event ends this weekend.  The deadline is midnight on Sunday, 26 October.  If you need more time, let me know.  I’ll gladly extend it.  To those of you who have already posted, if I haven’t been around yet, I will be soon.  I’ll be doing the wrap-up of the walks sometime next week, either Tuesday or Thursday.  It depends on what’s happening here at the ranch.

Grounded.

I’m still hoping to make my walk a beach walk, but we’ll see.  If I don’t make it to the beach, I won’t bother with an official Walktober walk post since most of my posts involve my daily walks.  Hmmm… maybe all of my posts involve a walk of some kind.

Morning walk

That’s about it from the Wabi-Sabi Ranch on this gorgeous fall Friday.  Our sunsets continue to be blazing with autumn colors.  Meet you out on the dock around 5:30 PM.  Sunset is at 6:13 PM tonight, but the show usually starts a good half hour or so before the scheduled time.  Last night the sky was an amazingly deep shade of ruby red.  I can’t show it to you because, believe it or not, I don’t always carry the camera around with me.  (I know!  Hard to believe!)  To be honest, I have so many images to sort through right now that I’m considering putting the camera away for a week.  Or maybe I’ll wait until autumn has exhausted her colors.

Sweet gum colors blowing in the wind.

Thank you so much for stopping by today, and joining me on another walk.  Do you have any plans for the weekend?  Plans or not, have a great weekend!

I have been keeping an eye on this maple tree. Looks like the colors will catch fire soon (if the wind doesn’t blow off the leaves first).

Be good, be kind, be loving.  Just Be.  🙂

Spot coloring.

Today’s joys:  The exhilarating breeze; the little birds flitting about; finding some volunteer zinnias shooting up on the path to the scrounger’s garden (I’m not sure they’ll grow far given the lateness of the season, but I’ll watch to see what happens); sunshine and wispy clouds; walking in the woods and meadows.

Partridge Peas in the meadow.