A late evening’s moment in time

Stop from your hurried day and slow down.  Stay in one place, calm your mind.  Pay attention to what is around you and in front of you:  at the end of this late autumn day the sun is slowing sliding to the horizon, having lost its earlier summer warmth.  The slough in front of me is filled with grasses and cattails, and the wind is rushing across them causing them to dance to its rhythm.  The sound of the wind is only challenged by the large flock of geese that has taken wing and is rising from the water.  The cacophony of their honking is carried across this same wind to my ears.  On this evening I am filled with joy, gratitude, and wonder for everything that has come together for this short moment in time.

 

Unexpected finds

How often is it that one starts to go to point A, makes a wrong turn, finds point B, and discovers something unexpected and remarkable?  One late afternoon this past week, I was headed north out of Saint Paul to meet a friend.  With an extra 25 to 30 minutes to spare, I got off the interstate to wander to a side highway.  Fortunately (?) I missed the turn and continued east, and stumbled into the Carlos Avery Wildlife Management Area.  My GPS showed lakes and sloughs on either side of me.  As I wandered down an unpaved road I came to a dike.  The sun was low in the sky and bathed the gold and red leaves in a warm evening light, offering up this late fall color, accompanied by the sounds of geese honking overhead.  All this beauty of nature was unexpectedly waiting for me on the outskirts of the city, yet it transported me to a wild and natural area far removed from the day’s hustle and bustle.

 

Autumn carpet

This may have been our last weekend for fall color here in the Twin Cities.  As the past week progressed we had cooler temps, rain, and more wind, culminating in yet another early snowfall on Friday.  With all these conditions the leaves have been falling much more regularly, carpeting the lawns, sidewalks, and streets.  I took a walk along the Mississippi River Road on the Saint Paul side of the River.  The temps were mild and there were many people enjoying the sights and smells of autumn.  Along the path I saw a small grouping of trees that had lost all their red leaves.  At first I was disappointed that I hadn’t seen their vibrant display a few days earlier, and then I realized that the leaves were still just as stunning except that they were carpeting the ground.  By lying down on this lush carpet (and confusing many of the passers-by), I was able to focus on the covering of red and gold and remind myself that sometimes the beauty of fall isn’t just at eye level and on the trees, but is often spread out before us at our feet.

 

Golden autumn colors

By all accounts, it’s been an unusual autumn.  We had summer-like weather into late September, then a cold front dipped down from Canada and turned our thermometers past fall and straight to winter and over four inches of snow.  After a hard freeze many of us were afraid there would be no autumn color.   Although it isn’t as prevalent as usual, there are some brilliant golden colors in the landscape.  Yesterday I drove along the St. Croix River, north of St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin.  I was treated to a brilliant display of gold and yellow as the road hugged the side of the river.  The sun was setting the leaves aglow — one final hurrah for fall before the white of winter settles in.

 

Fall apple harvest

One of my favorite bounties of fall is the apple harvest.  Whether I was living in Washington state or in Minnesota, there are wonderful and delicious apples that grow in the respective regions.  This seems to have been a good year for the apple harvest in the midwest.   Although it may be a little bit later than usual, the apple trees are full with their luscious fruit.  We ventured north to the shoreline of Lake Superior this weekend nad harvested apples from an old tree belonging to a dear friend.  No one knows the type of apple, but everyone agrees that it’s excellent for cooking.  So now we’ll put up applesauce to enjoy throughout the cold winter, and we’ll enjoy apple pie and cobbler, apple muffins and turnovers.  There’s a wonderful smell wafting from our kitchen!

 

Fall colors

How quickly we’ve moved from late summer to fall!  The weather change happened almost overnight, with cooler temps and much-needed rain settling into the area.  Everyone was digging out their sweaters and jackets, and looking for cool-weather comfort foods to warm them up.  With the season change it seems we all look to deeper, richer colors, as seen in the dark maroons and golds of the mums that are in full bloom in our area.  Their colors remind us that the lighter shades of summer are past, just like the sun’s heat.  But there’s great beauty in the fall too, and they’re a prime example.  Soon the leaves on the trees will turn to the reds, golds, and oranges, and they will fall down to decorate the lawns and streets — one last blast of color before the white of winter settles in.

 

Dawn on the Mississippi River

We spent some time this past weekend driving south along the Mississippi River.  On a beautiful fall day we drove to Wabasha and helped some friends with their grape harvest.  With the warm sun, the smell of grapes on our hands, beautiful scenery, and good friends and conversation we picked Marquette grapes for about seven hours.  After a delicious dinner-feast (coupled with the best wine!), we drove further south to Winona and spent the night.  I got out of bed early, anxious to explore a town I hadn’t been to before.  As the sun rose on a beautiful morning, the old bridge crossing the Mississippi River was silhouetted against the clouds that were streaming across the sky.  After a couple of hours the clouds increased, the sun disappeared, the wind came up, and it started to rain.  Luckily we had indoor activities planned – a visit to the Minnesota Marine Art Museum (a hidden gem, worth a good 2+ hour visit) and the National Eagle Center in Wabasha.  It was a busy weekend, but one filled with new sights, good conversation, great company, and new adventures.

 

Hard at work

Everyone is busy getting ready for fall, including the bees.  The asters are in full bloom in our backyard, and they seem to be a magnet for the bees.  It’s exciting to see all the activity; I wonder at all the flying and flitting around that they do.  It was fascinating to observe this one bee as he moved from bloom to bloom, stopping for short while and then moving on to another.  Our summer-like weather has yet to turn over to fall temperatures, so he’s like all of us – busily trying to get all those jobs and tasks done that we’ve put off hoping that summer would last longer than September.

 

White cosmos

Earlier this week I found myself at the Munsinger Clemens Gardens in St. Cloud, Minnesota.  It was late in the day and the sun was getting lower in the sky.  These beautiful gardens are located right along the Mississippi River.  I’d been here earlier in the year when the tulips, daffodils, and iris were brilliantly proclaiming spring, but now it seems that the flowers are bravely holding on to our last bit of summer.  They bloom as if the days were still long and the nights were still warm.  They dance in the setting sun and promise that although fall is almost upon us, they will return with their lovely faces and welcome us to warm weather again next year.

 

From fair time to fall time

The surest sign of fall is the end of the Minnesota State Fair.  With perfect temps and blue skies, the fair set a new attendance record this year.  Living just a few blocks away from the fairgrounds has its good and bad — lots of car traffic, people everywhere, the sounds of the shows at the Grandstand, and the fireworks every night.  Now the neighborhood returns to its usual routine, and we slide into fall.  Already there are spots of color in some of the trees.  The temperatures slide a little bit cooler in the evenings, and the sun has lost its intensity.  The Canada geese are flying again, cruising over our rooftop as they commute between the agricultural fields at the university and Como Lake.  The summer flowers are fading and the fall mums are evident in gardens and on entry steps.  This morning the children were standing at bus stops waiting for their first day back at school.  All the familiarities that tell us the seasons have changed.