Despite the cool temperatures – it was 26 this morning – fall still seems to be late. There’s a lot of color in the woods, and some of the oaks haven’t turned at all. On a cloudy day, there doesn’t seem to be much color. But on a sunny day, the woods outside my cabin are blazing with yellow and gold from the pignut and mockernut, the red maple, and some of the chestnut oak. The scarlet oaks have just begun to turn, way up at the top, and the white oaks are in between. The sourwood, of course, has come and gone.
If you haven’t been up for a while and are wondering what’s happening at your cabin, I can report that I blew leaves for the first time this weekend. Ordinarily, there would be about six inches of leaves in the yard if I hadn’t blown them yet, but I easily got them out of the way even though they were still a little wet from the rain.
The weather service is showing our area as likely to be removed from drought designation, which is due to all the rain that we got – finally – at the end of October. Better late than never, I suppose.