Good Fences and Green Grass…

The grass is not, in fact, always greener on the other side of the fence. Fences have nothing to do with it. The grass is greenest where it is watered.

 When crossing over fences, carry water with you and tend the grass wherever you may be.

~Robert Fulghum

A couple of fences I picked up on my comings and goings this summer.

Linking up with The Run*A*Round Ranch's Good Fences!

Confessions of a closet peeper…

We complain a fair amount about leaf peepers here in New England.  This time of year, the traffic gets heavier, people drive like maniacs and there are more busses on the road.  Getting from point A to point B can sometimes be challenging.  Even so, Greg and I are not above doing a little leaf peeping ourselves.  In truth, it was our plan to load Olive, the pug, into the car and to drive up into southern Vermont this weekend to see how the leaves are changing there, but things conspired against us and we never made it.  So yesterday, even though the weather was a bit overcast, we went ahead and did a short tour of Vermont.

Starting out here in south central Massachusetts, the day was pretty nice.  The sky was mostly blue but the leaves are quite a way from being at peak.

Still even here, now and then, we saw patches of true autumn color.

As we traveled north and west, the sky got more and more overcast, but the leaves were more and more colorful.

Of course, it is my humble opinion that Vermont is the most beautiful place in this country no matter what the time of year, but in the fall, it has beauty that is beyond words.

Driving around staring at all that color makes one a bit peckish, so as we were heading home, we pulled into a little place that sold ice cream and each had a small cone.  This is what a pug looks like when she thinks that she deserves a lick of your ice cream.  She can hold that pose for quite a while.

It was a nice day in spite of the less than stellar weather.

  I just love this time of year!

My (not so) Wild Life…

The Sturbridge police have issued an official warning on Facebook.  Yes, there is a bear hanging around our neighborhood.  They even posted pictures of this bear breaking into the henhouse of one of our neighbors to prove it.  But I haven’t seen the bear yet.

Last night, or should I say this morning, around 4:30 when it was just beginning to get light out, Olive, the pug, stood on the end of the bed and began chuffing.  The first thing that came to my mind was the bear, of course.  I did something I seldom do at that time of the day.  I put on my glasses and looked out the window.  No bear in sight.  Still, Olive was not to be put off.  She was positive that something was out to get us.  As I lay there trying to get back to sleep, I thought I heard the culprit.  Turkey gobbles.  My guess is that the turkeys that populate these parts have had their young and they are now on the prowl for food.  I haven’t seen them yet.  I’ve seen a few single males but no broods as yet.

My wild life sightings have been few this year if you don’t count the birds, bunnies and squirrels.  I did get up one very early morning about a week ago and looked out the window to see what I thought was a large cat rubbing itself on a tree trunk.  When it turned around, I realized it was a young fox.  But I haven’t seen him again although there is a hole in our yard that makes me think that a fox might just live there as Greg discovered part of a dead mouse next to it a couple days ago.

I’m not discouraged because there are two pieces of wild life that I can depend on seeing every day.  They aren’t going anywhere.  I’m talking about my two favorite trees.  Well, I shouldn’t really play favorites here because I actually have about 15 favorite trees…maybe 20.  But these two are in our yard.

One is a large European Beech tree.  It’s a tree with funny habits, not losing all of its leaves until the spring buds push them off.  Its leaves are a gorgeous color, kind of reddish yellowish on the top and sort of greenish yellowish from below with a trunk that looks like a big elephant leg.

Our lilac with the beech in the background.  Gorgeous spring color!

The other is the Red Maple in our back yard.  I love that the leaves on this tree are never really green.  Although they kind of fade to green in the fall.   I’ve taken about a gazillion and two photos of this tree, especially of it's fabulous leaves in the sun, but I never tire of looking at it.  From our upstairs windows I can watch the birds flying around inside it.  Crows seem to love it and when a cardinal lands on it, it is just a fabulous riot of reds.  It inspires me.

Okay, so I’m a tree-hugger.  What of it?  It beats getting an honest to goodness bear-hug, for goodness sake.  Ask the Sturbridge police.

Random thoughts…

1)  I love fall!  We have had a lovely one and though usually by this time, the leaves are down, they are still hanging in and are still gorgeous.

Both far away...

And up close...

2)  Today, I was out with Greg.  It was such a beautiful day, I had the window down when we stopped at the ATM.  Have you ever noticed what a nice sound it is when the fall leaves scuttle across the pavement?  I think it is just wonderful.  That would make a nice white noise recording to help me sleep.

3)  These days you see pumpkin stuff everywhere.  You see pumpkin beer – meh.  You see pumpkin martinis – not on your life – why ruin such a good thing?  Pumpkin pie – well, it’s okay but not my favorite.  But earlier this week, I had a superb cup of pumpkin bisque at one of the local establishments.  Now, that’s what to do with pumpkin!

4)  A few years ago, I bought a peanut feeder for the birds.  This feeder has large holes in it so it can be filled with whole raw peanuts.  I quit using it because when the squirrels could get at our feeders, they would wipe it out almost as fast as I could fill it.  Well, I’m here to tell you that the birds are almost as fast at it as the squirrels were.  I fill it almost every day.  It is rather comical to watch the little birds struggling to get a good flight going with a whole peanut in their beaks.  But I imagine they need the protein these days to get ready for what’s ahead.

5)  I’m heading out in a few minutes to go to a Craft Night at the church we go to.  Every year for the last five or so, a few of us have gotten together to put stuff together to sell at our annual Fair Trade Sale.  It’s a fun and rather messy night.  I am going to concentrate on stamping gift wrap with designs using stuff like the ends of celery and cut up peppers and such.  I’ll take some pictures and if my creations aren’t too terrible, I’ll share them with you all.

LINKING TO A RURAL JOURNAL'S

RANDOM FIVE FRIDAY!

Here's to autumn...

Happy first day of autumn to us here in the Northern Hemisphere!  It got off to a good start here in Central Massachusetts.  Seems like overnight, the leaves have started to turn.  I love it!!

Seven Mile River, Brookfield, Massachusetts

Nemo is here!

Well, we’ve been told that the Storm of the Century is happening today here in New England.  The prediction is that in our part of the state we will be getting from 18 to 24 inches of snow.  But if you look at the map, we may be in the 24+ area.  What can you do?  You might as well hunker down and enjoy the down time.  Mother Nature reigns supreme.

Clearly someone here is not concerned about the nefarious NEMO.

At 11:00 am, things weren't so bad.

At least we don't have to stand out in it all day like this birch tree.

I'll leave you with a pic the sunny side of my red tulips.

They don't give a hoot if it's snowing.

Revisiting autumn...

I didn't get enough of fall this year.  I didn't have enough time to even look at my autumn photos to see what I had lurking on my machine.  I've decided to do that today.  I so love fall and already miss the color.  

Off the Common in Brookfield, Massachusetts.

I thought I'd throw one in of Ms. Olive who loves to go leaf peeping with me.