Winter Is Fading Fast...

Right now we have entered Mud Season. A few snow bones are left, but rapidly shrinking. The owls are necking and cooing, geese are passing through, and the Old Gobblers' Club is out showing off and looking for ladies. 

                                                       

Susan is starting cabbage seeds! Back To The Old Grind!

Fall Has Fell!

 The fall colors ease us into the dark time of year, but the rain and cold remind us what comes next. The stoves offer necessary comfort. We fired up the basement stove yesterday.

Vivaldi Four Seasons: Spring, Alana Youseffian and the Voices of Music

 

Not My Victrola: Fight Those Winter Blahs!

We have posted this one before, and is a great song to lift your spirit on a cold and dreary winter day. It is one of my favorite records for Fox-Trotting, so push back the furniture and join in the fun.

No sun today, but the temp is now to 39 degrees F, and the snow is settling rapidly!

Morning Visitor

 A herd of deer will break and run if the dogs start barking at them, but a single deer doesn't really care as long as I don't make any funny moves.

We are getting some colors now.

The Harps Of Spring Are In The Air!

 The spring birds are hollerin', the buzzards are circling over us every day, our barred owls are hatching young'uns, and the daffodils are lovely. The crocuses are looking great, too!

We let the fire go out for a day, and fired up again. We still need some heat. 

Spring, The Voices Of Music, Alana Yousefian

Fatted Possums

This persimmon tree has just about been cleaned in the last week.  Possums, coons, squirrels and migrating birds are having a good time.  Deer like to pick up the drops, and they are all fat going into winter.  Walnuts are thick under our trees and we should be picking up.  Gotta get wood, too.  We are not quite ready for winter yet, but we are pushing along.

Looks Like Fall To Me

The Sun won't cross the Equator until the wee hours of the morning, but today, the sun had crossed over to the south side of our east-west county blacktop.  Close enough for me!

Colors Have Peaked, And The Leaves Are Dropping

Still no hard freeze here, just scattered frost, so the leaves are giving us good hang time. Red maple is beautiful, as usual.  The oaks are doing great with muted red in the red oak group, and gold highlights in the white oaks. It's glorious!

The Moon Makes Me Dream

The Night Will Soon Be Longer Than The Day

The sun is almost in the middle of the road at rising and setting.  We will soon be going into Dark Time.

Looking Out Our Back Door

Morning Dog Walks

It's worth getting up early to walk dogs so you can see the sunrise.  We had a little weather activity today that was dramatic, and even got a little sun pillar action.

It's been dry, and the trees aren't coloring up like they usually do.  Ash will turn yellow for a couple days and then drop.  Walnut has been pretty good, and so has persimmon. Here we have some shining sumac that always puts on a good show along the driveway.

A squall line ran through this evening and dropped a little rain.  The fire danger should drop a bit, and maybe some of the trees can show off a little color now as we lead up to frost.

It's Almost Sprung!

Nearly centered up this morning! The equinox is supposed to occur at 5:28 CDT on Monday, March 20.

In other news, these daffodils looked pretty sad after a low temp of 18° F a few days ago, but most of them came out of it just fine. We just ran one stove yesterday, and the house temp was 80° last night at bedtime.  Gotta make a smaller fire.

Equinox Means...

...the sun comes right down the centerline. It's getting closer!

Nights Are Long...

...but the sun will be coming up earlier after tomorrow. This silly little song comes to mind every day while I'm walking the dogs before daybreak. EDIT: Well, actually the sun will begin winter by setting later.

Here's one for you, Merle! The sun peeked through the gap, and then was behind the clouds.