Autumn

It’s still a little early to claim autumn, but we have had an increasing number of trees turning autumn shades of orange, red, and yellow this past week. The end of August is pretty awful early for trees to be turning colors. Maybe it has something to do with our lack of rain. It’s not due to cold temperatures, that’s for sure.

Otherwise, the ragweed is right on schedule for a fun filled Labor Day weekend. I’m sneezing my head off. I looked out my kitchen window yesterday and noted the several ragweed plants blooming on the hill. They’re actually quite pretty, but my nose doesn’t share that opinion. Today my eyes are so bleary and itchy that I can hardly see the pretty flowers. This is annual autumn misery, right on schedule.

It’s that time of year when my daily mantra becomes “Please let there be a killing frost. Please let there be a killing frost.”

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Another sure sign of autumn....a field mouse moved into the new woodpile in the last week. I saw it scampering around on top of the woodpile a couple of days ago. Such a sleek and pretty little mouse with shiny gray fur and petite white stocking feet. Terry either smelled it or saw it and was determined to root it out. As a result, I heard a tremendous crash and rumble last evening. When I ran out to see what was going on, I found a sheepish dog and a collapsed woodpile. Sometime this weekend I’ll have to go out and re-stack. I hope not to find a squished mouse.