The trees are bare

 Autumn starts to chill the air

Until the trees look sad and bear,

Time for fireside tales,you know,

Underneath the lamplight's glow.

Makes you feel you want to sigh,

Now the summer's stolen by.

The abnormally warm temperatures have now passed us by.  I finally lit a fire a week ago Monday and our first frost hit us ending my raspberry harvest

 That Wednesday we had an afternoon sleet shower which only lasted a few minutes, just a prelude of things to come.

While the mountain ridge on the other side of the river looks like this… 

Our side looks like this…

Almost all the trees are bare…

The exception being the oak trees which will hold their leaves for a long while still…

 

 It has been an odd fall.  Everyone is commenting on the amount of wooly bear caterpillars.  I have never seen so many and for the first time they all look alike.  This year they all have equal rows of black and brown followed by one row of black.  For all the abundance in the garden and nature I noticed the barberry bushes on the way to the barn are almost empty and the squirrels are making short work of the winterberry already. 

I have finished canning for the year.  I have put everything away.  I still have Brussels sprouts and broccoli in the garden  which we will either eat as they come or freeze. I also saved a bucket of green tomatoes that will ripen over time. 

So canning time has now become log splitting and leaf blowing time.  The screens came off the windows and the screen doors were taken down till Spring.  I love looking out the windows without the screens…now to just get them cleaned.  I guess it’s fall cleaning time also.

I have been knitting.  Most of it is for the grandsons but at least I am back to it.  I made a pumpkin hat for Baby B along with two different bee hive (skep) hats for him to wear for Halloween.  He is going as a pot of honey.  I also whipped up this shark hat for Toddler O…

I didn't take pictures but I also made a tea cozy and a pair of mittens for me.  Now I am looking through designs for a stocking for Baby B.

There is never a dull moment.  One season just quickly turns into the next.  They need to slow down so I can keep up.