Well, If you blinked you missed it. The leaves just weren't changing and many were just turning brown and falling off the trees through the first week of October, then boom we started to see real color showing up. For two weeks it wasn't the best fall color ever, but quite pretty as you can see looking from our pasture through to our woods. It really peaked last weekend and I told Mike, "with the storm and winds predicted on Tuesday, It will all be over." And boy was it ever.
The temperatures plunged, it snowed about 2 inches, and the winds howled for two days. That was that. The leaves were almost completely down and I am scrambling to deal with frozen waterers and making sure that the animals have sufficient hay and bedding to stay warm and dry.
I love living in a temperate climate with distinct seasons and fall has always been my favorite. I love the energy of change; the lushness and overgrown reality of late summer diminishing into the austerity of November. I like the cold and the snow and the frost; the way the stars glitter in clear, cold skies. The sudden deafening silence the first morning after the first frost; no more crickets, cicadas or confused spring peepers instead just the occasional sound of crows and bluejays in the woods. It's a very magical time of year.
