Fall Equinox

Well its official – Fall Has Officially Arrived with the Equinox on September the 22nd.  Personally I view the seasons as straddling the equinoxes and solstices but the modern world at large sees this as a personal eccentricity and the natural world ignores my thoughts entirely.    

Pine Tree area Mushrooms

Meanwhile another kind of fall mushroom has popped up in my yard.  These grow near the pines and can get to be 5 inches across.  Like the earlier ball shaped fungus they have no stems.   I normally get 8 or 9 types of fungal growths in my yard during the year, more if it’s a wet spring or fall.

Looking North to the Blue Ridge Mountains

I had wonderfully ambitious ideas about starting fall by getting a bunch of maintenance done around my yard but the day was far too nice to let that happen.  I didn’t take the same ride as last time but aimed for panorama views rather than woodland solitude.  The blue skies of fall have always seemed deeper than those of summer.

Creek into the Beaver’s Pond

I did check on the Beaver Pond again. The mud has settled out in the creeks and rivers as well as the pond itself. The rivers have dropped down too but the pond is deeper.

Beaver Pond

There were 4 Pileated Woodpeckers and a Lesser Blue Heron on the far side of the pond in the trees – too far for a photo.

Robinson River looking Upstream

The Robinson River is running about 12 to 18 inches deep which is a good flow for September.  I did see 3 Great Blue Herons hunting dinner in the river it didn’t seem good to disturb them for a photo.

Mind you, I did get the windows and storm windows in the kitchen and both front bedrooms done along with my laundry, the dishes and some stuff sorted.  I even finished getting most of the photos on my desktop computer organized.  So it wasn’t totally a labor free day.  And Saturday was spent with Da Urchin here as she went car shopping – she got herself a New-to-Her low mileage Subaru Impreza and I got a sunburn.  It was a very good weekend.