blazing gazing

I love October, especially later in the month.  I have put away my summer clothes and am happily in jeans and sweaters again.  Mornings are crisp, and our daily drive through Morgan Monroe State Forest to our hiking trail is just the perfect way to start the day.  

It...is...gorgeous!

Another place we love to hike locally is Bean Blossom Bottoms, a 336-acre wildlife preserve about 10 minutes from our house.  It's too mosquito-filled in the summer, but fall is sublime.

Oak tree

Swamp rose hips

cattails

white-tailed deer

maple

lion mane fungus (a delicacy!)

winterberry

It's been warm enough for insects to continue to thrive, like this dew-covered dragonfly...

...these woolly alder aphids...

...and even spring peepers!

When it gets just a little bit colder, they'll burrow into the mud until spring...but for now, they're still out and about.  

Incredibly, despite cooling temps and absolutely no rain, I'm still getting tomatoes from the garden...

...and flowers too.

This time of year, the light is just beautiful.  

Claudia in full retirement mode!

We're surrounded by state forest and the trees are just amazing.

It looks like we have at least 10 days of "more of the same" weather coming.  Open windows during the day and quilts at night...heaven!

Have a great week!  

birds of a feather...

Despite the drought (I don't think we've had any rain in September OR October, other than a 2-day deluge from Hurricane Helene), our fall weather is outstanding.  Sunny and mid-70s every day.

Lots of dew in the mornings.

Because days are warm and nights are cool, the fog on our morning walks is GORGEOUS.

Because it's still warm, we have plenty of flowers...and insects.  These invasive Chinese mantises are everywhere...

...and pregnant.

I'm gathering up handfuls of oothecas (mantis egg cases).

Lots of caterpillars this fall, like this salt marsh caterpillar.

Claudia is LOVING the extended fall.

We're STILL harvesting tomatoes, and some flowers still have a little bit of color, until the frost comes.

Halloween decorations went up a couple of weeks ago...

(many more, but for some reason I didn't photograph them...)

...and I've pulled out the quilts, even though it doesn't feel quite warm enough for them yet.  For us, anyway.  

I've noticed that the behavior of our outdoor animals is changing, though.  Raccoons, which have been solitary all summer, have paired up.

Deer, too, are starting to exhibit pack behavior.

Meanwhile, we're probably going to see the last of the turkeys soon.  Our little flock of 12-14 poults has shrunk to five in just a couple of months.

They'll disappear into the woods soon for the winter.  We, too, are ready to hunker down for winter, although it feels far away during this sunny, mild fall. 

Have a great week!  

a Michi-gander

October is the perfect time for a fall road trip!  So I headed a few hours north and met my friend Heather for a Lake Michigan adventure.

The dunes are steeper than I expected!  You can see tiny specks (people) making the climb in the second photo.  

So many gulls!

Lake Michigan is so pretty.

Lighthouses!!

We got some good weather and quite a bit of (nicely atmospheric) rain.

Even with the damp and the chill, we were able to orchard-hop...

...and totally dominate the area's largest corn maze!

The breaks in the storm...

...gave us time to leaf-peep...

...and check out some of the things that Michigan is famous for.

Well, I've never seen a black squirrel before, anyway!

We even got to sleep in a castle one night!

I had my own balcony in the Queen's Turret...

...that was perfect for a little late-night knitting!  

We came, we saw...and I got home juuuuust in time to celebrate Todd's half birthday with a burnt, sloppily-decorated cookie cake that pretty much accurately reflected my out-of-it state of mind after much driving and not quite enough sleep.

We still went for our walk this morning...

...and I love that it's sweater weather (this week), and that it's just enough cold for our leaves here to finally start changing.

Hooray for fall at last!

Have a great week!