Fall's Little Gifts

Fall is a very conflicted season. One day is all big poofy cotton ball clouds with blue skies so intense they crackle and a warm breeze full of bird song. The next day its cold hard rain with s slate gray sky and a cutting wind stolen from the straits of Mackinac. Last Saturday was one of the poofy cloud days light wind days, which means it was also a perfect day for ballooning. There are over half a dozen of balloons available for hire locally plus at least twice as many more used solely for their owners' personal pleasure. Its not at all unusual to see 6 to 8 ballons at once in various parts of the sky here. This particular balloon is about to land and ts chase truck was parked right across the street from were this was taken. It landed in the field just over the trees on the left of the picture.



The Fall Hunt Season is another sight & sound common to this area. I've heard a hunt before but never actually seen one let alone been able to photograph one before. This was was winding up one evening down in Culpeper county. About half the riders and a third of the hounds have walked past me and gone over a river to a farm pickup spot. This group was shortly joined by 2 more riders and another hound. Then they too crossed the road and were last seem heading towards a barn complex.

Of course its also hunting season alone the eastern side of the Blue Ridge. Archery season opened in early October, muzzleloading season in the beginning of November and general firearms season will open in mid November. This fine fellow doesn't seem all that concerned as he strolls around a field about 4 miles from my house.

The last 2 days have been very gray, very wet, very windy and very chill. I did the sensible thing - washed floors, vacuumed, polished all my shoes, cleaned out the hall and yellow bedroom closets, did the laundry, did the dishes, updated my blog, spackled and in short removed things from my Round-Tuit list. As a reward to self I then spent Thursday evening making music with my friend Jane. A very nice end to an otherwise dreary late fall day.