Fall

It is fall here… days are getting noticeably shorter and cooler, and the trees are turning… It would have been nice to go over to the Blue Ridge Mountains to see the color there, but the Shenandoah National Park was closed with the rest of the Government. So this weekend we went looking for some local color.

We had the DGS with us Saturday and Sunday, so we took him out for a walk at a small reservoir. The breeze was a little chilly…and the sun was out. I didn’t find much in the way of color… Lots of yellow, green and orange. The poplars are done (leaves gone), the dogwood is not a pretty red and the oaks may be brown before good color sets.

and there were power lines in the way for vista shots. This was the best shot with color. Also found some dogwood berries, it was the best red I saw. As you can see the leaves were dull purple-y brown.

This was my favorite picture -a gold field with a few remaining bits of color- but then again I always like thistles.

We found some active bits of nature… a few butterflies and grasshoppers flitting about and some Wooly Bear Caterpillars. DGS wanting to hold the ‘bear’, but the ‘bear’ wasn’t going to climb on a human. They all seemed to be on a mission… could it be preparing for winter?

For more information on these guys you can go here or here. Interesting… reading about what they become, what they eat and how fast they can travel! Oh and can the really predict the winter?

It seems that the winter prediction between the caterpillar and my dogs are way different! The dogs say harsh…. the caterpillar says mild. Interesting!

After walking and looking at nature, DGS was done and opted for a ride back to the car. We all forgot that he is sensitive to ragweed… so he was feeling a little punkie… next time allergy meds before he arrives at the grandparents house, unless we get a good frost first, which may happen this next weekend. YaY for frost on the pumpkin!!!

More later--- Beth