The Colors of Autumn

Where to start? I have been out and about on errands the past couple of day, and have wisely taken my camera along for the ride.

Once again I stopped at the Clear Creek trail and took some pictures.

Ah, some flowers are blooming in mid-October. And the bees are very happy.

Looking down on the Clear Creek stream.

Sassafras leaves.

This old bridge gets a lot of use today.

After my appointment and lunch, I am ready for a nice afternoon walk. Now, I really do miss the days when I could simply decide that I wanted to go for a walk, put my shoes on and walk out the door. Now a days? First, I make sure my cell phone is charged and packed. Then I take a precautionary dose from my emergency asthma inhaler and then pack the inhaler, I pack some ice water, some extra batteries for my camera (and since the camera died on the very first picture, whew), Kleenextm and my house keys in a handy-dandy bag. I haven't had to be this prepared since I had babies in tow.

Anyway, on with the show.

The sassafras trees are my favorites this time of year. Can you blame me for trying so hard to get at least one of these trees in my yard? Unfortunately for me, these native American trees are almost impossible to transplant due to the very long tap root and their propensity to sucker from the roots.

I ignored my neighbor's dogs who were barking at me rather ineffectually, given that an eight-foot fence separated us.

Hmm, if a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it, does it make a noise?

And this is where you should smack me - but don't you dare. Here I was thinking that wouldn't it be something if I could somehow capture the falling leaves. Hint: I have a digital camera with a video mode. I keep forgetting that. Must. Not. Forget. That.

And by the way, when American sycamore leaves fall to the ground, it sounds like a good-sized animal is crashing through the woods. These leaves are not small and they make a lot of noise falling.

What, me playing around with camera angles?

This lane-and-a-half wide road ends behind our property.

Ooh look, pretty leaves.

Close up view of my dogwood. Don't believe the garden books. These pretty berries won't last much longer. The birds will see to that.

And there's my favorite barn. I love this view from my back deck.

Um, what happened? Oh wait, we're on the road to Richmond, Indiana. Here we are, traveling north out of Bloomington.

Just south of Martinsville, IN. The town is still struggling to recover from the June floods.

Sorry, but flat Indiana doesn't thrill me, as I grew up in flat Ohio. Back to Southern Indiana. After a nice lunch with a friend and some errands, I head home - via the long way.

Oh, this poor guy is still hanging around.

Moores Creek area of Lake Monroe.

Sumacs in fall color.

Moores Creek is one of the areas where one can access this man-made lake for free.

This is a route that is only seasonally available to us as the road is often in the lake in the spring.