The Glory of Fall

We're having a glorious fall day that makes my reluctance to leave summer behind feel silly.
The sun is shining through a crisp refreshing breeze.  I’ve had a walk, a casual lazy day walk.  Bear droppings are everywhere.  Hazelnuts are all cleaned up—birds and bears no doubt have helped.  I missed my helping this year.  Came home to gather my pumpkins and gourds. I always love this part of fall.  What will I find beneath the straggling vines this year?  There was a bumper crop of volunteers in the compost pile this summer.  One was a big pumpkin.  Unfortunately a wandering bear had some fun with it before abandoning it on the lawn…

But I was very pleased with the armloads of mixed cousins I discovered.  And the gargantuan ribbed zucchini to top them all!

It was a good summer for volunteers.  Had a bumper crop of small red potatoes but the ones that grew in the abandoned compost area were giants!

Likewise the sprawling nasturtiums...

This was my favorite this year:

Well, but summer is over with its swimming and boating, gardens and travel.  In exchange there will be cozy treks in wool and windbreaker and the ever essential earwarmer.  But best of all the  delights of fall is the fire to come home to at trails' end.

Every season has its glories-- God bless the season you are in with His bounty and His comforts--the best is yet to come!

All in a Day's Walk...

Summer's bounty is fading now.  Blackberries that escaped bears and humankind hang shriveled on their brambles... Geese fly overhead morning and evening, restless...Pears and  their peelings fill the compost, enticing bears...the hazelnuts are beginning to fall on the street just around the corner... The air is cooler and wetter and the skies are grayer.   The  sun sets earlier now.  It's inescapable--fall is on the way. 

I generally have a hard time letting go of summer--the blue skies, sunny days,  picnics, gardening... But the time has come.  So I put on my comfy old sweatshirt and tried-and-true-- though ugly-- windbreaker and headed out for a walk.   But you know, it wasn't so bad.  The moist cool air was actually invigorating to breathe deeply.   And it triggered eagerness for a fresh season.  So yes, I am reconciled to summer's passing, at last.

Have to tell you what I saw on my walk this afternoon--two miles of nothing more eventful than a rustling in the roadside growth, to which  I told Louie to "Speak!" and hastened on my way talking loudly to myself!  Reciting my Bible memory work out loud suddenly seemed very sensible. 

But then I got to the homestretch--back in our own neighborhood.  I chanced to look up at an apple tree beside the street and got a 'start'.  What?!  Big furry paws hung down through the branches. 



There was something strange about them though, they looked limp,  like maybe someone had shot the bear and left it there?  Strange.  I had to have a closer look.
Chuckle.  How funny.  I've heard of decoy ducks but bears!  And what do you suppose was in the tree next to this one?
His twin, clambering up to get one last apple...

( :  So my uneventful walk was saved from tedium by a good chuckle.  Just never know what you'll encounter in a day's walk.

Hope your day will have some comic relief tossed in when you need it most.  Blessings!
--Linda