Autumn

It's getting fall here in Colorado.  The mornings can be cool, the middle of the day warm and then it cools off quickly when the sun drops behind the mountains.  Today we went to Lily Lake; Brett hiked while I worked on the ever-present homework.  The aspens are green-gold right now on the lower mountainsides.  Some of those higher up are golden.  It is too difficult to explain how magical the gold of aspens can be...you have to stand under them with the wind rustling the leaves on their tiny, twisty petioles.  They flip back and forth with the lightest bit of air movement. 

Canada geese have been arriving for weeks now.  Flying low over the house and honking...a sure sign that fall is near.

There are purple asters blooming, the wild roses have made bright red rose hips, there are dark, dark, black-blue berries of a plant I don't know and bright white-green berries on another plant.  The oaks and maples are turning too but a little slower.  The mountains smell like Christmas pines when the heat of the day makes the resin ooze out of the needles.  There are wild apples, wild plums and tiny inedible crabapples. 

The grasses are brown, the fields are full of wheat either waiting to be harvested or the field has stalks left from combining.  The farmers will leave those so the stalks will catch more snow during the winter.  The sunflower heads droop because their seeds are so heavy they can't hold their heads up.  The jasmine is blooming and the roses in the front of the house are getting the last hurrah in before snow stops the bloomfest. 

There has already been frost in Nebraska and here yesterday it was about 60 deg high with cold and dreary clouds.  But, for tonight, the crickets are singing, the windows are open and it's still summer.