random fall stroll

Sheep sheep sheep!

They’re not the really cool kind my sister used to raise (soay) but they’re still welcome neighbors.

Here’s “Our” brook, but a bit farther downstream…a mile and a half from our house. It eventually dumps out into the Connecticut.

 

More fading colors to show you…Here’s the hillside above our house, from October 29th…

And that same view today…

 

Remember this beauty from August 8th? It’s a globe thistle. This particular one is in our driveway and it’s the only one we had this year.

Our neighbor, on the other hand, has boatloads of them, and this is what they look like now:

 

And I have THE BEST bud to show you!

This is Juglans cinerea – butternut, aka white walnut. Look at the leaf scar – the little monkey face. The dots and the smiley face are the cross section of veins that went into the stem of a leaf that has since fallen away. Make sense? This tree litters the road with big green husks with walnuts inside. Someday I’ll be adventurous and do what fellow blogger Allison did.

Plus, plus, plus, we have a willow on our hands…

 

Some of the meadows around here are being mowed, which always saddens me – as a long-haired person, I’m philosophically opposed to shears of any kind – but on the other hand, if you want a meadow to remain a meadow, Steps Must Be Taken.

Here’s a Not Mowed Yet…cricket heaven.

And here’s one that that was recently shorn…

I’m not feeling particularly articulate today. It may have to do with the chocolate brownie sundae fest that has characterized my birthday yesterday and, true confession time, the day after my birthday as well. *burp”.