This Is Amazing

I got home this morning after having breakfast with my sister and saw what looked like a large truck for hauling leaves at the end of our block. I had no idea it was that time of year already. I honestly believed that the trees in our front yard were dropping their leaves incredibly fast and early. And I thought this early leaf drop was precipitated by record-breaking cold temperatures, wind, and lots and lots of rain.

So within just a few days the front yard was about knee deep in wet leaves.

Normally, I prefer to mow rake. In other words, use a mulching blade on our lawn mower to make the leaves virtually disappear, while enriching the soil at the same time; but with leaves about a foot deep and wet, mow raking (I think I invented that term. lol) was an impossibility. I had raked and bagged two large garbage cans and 3 huge, tightly stuffed bags of leaves and hadn't even made a dent.

Therefore, when I saw that truck at the end of the block, I panicked. I reasoned that if I could just get a few bushels of leaves out to the street, it would be that many that I wouldn't have to bag or leave laying in the street alongside the lawn for another week or more, since the city picks up leaves by area. If we were the first area, we might not get another pick up until some time in November.

So I'd rake a few strokes, gather an enormous armload of leaves between the large rake head and my other arm and dash it out to the street. I had a fairly respectable pile for a short period of work when two people got out of a pickup truck that was part of the leaf pick up crew. They were carrying big, POWERFUL leaf blowers and they walked into my yard, up to my house, and started blowing leaves out to the street.

The leaves were so deep that they'd kick them along in places because there were too many to blow so I kept carrying loads out to the street. In about twenty minutes, these two angelic city employees and I had our front yard clear of leaves - no small feat when there were so many! Then the rest of the crew helped blow them into the front loader so they could be dumped into their truck. Here they are just finishing up:




And I was the most grateful citizen in town.

I gave them all the pop and water I had in the refrigerator, a box of Ritz Crackers, and the big bag of really good Halloween candy that had been earmarked for beggar's night. I just needed to find a way to tangibly show my appreciation.

Unfortunately, I couldn't take a picture until they were virtually finished because it might not have seemed right to stand around taking pictures while they did all the work; and that's a shame because it's hard to adequately describe the mountain of leaves that they moved in a short period of time. And a picture would have astounded everyone almost as much as this story.

These people didn't have to help me but I suspect that my neighbors, with two leaf blowers were trying to get their lawn done and the city employees wanted to give them a chance to finish so while they were waiting, they helped me.

I'm speechless with gratitude and impressed beyond measure. What wonderful people!

It's Not All Fun And Games

So some people might think that I walk in the Dunes simply for pleasure and enjoyment. Or just to take pictures which I guess is also pleasure and enjoyment. Well, I'm here to say that right now I'm not having much enjoyment.

My head is still sore and so is my elbow. But my stomach and abdominal muscles feel like I've been working out for a week. My neck is so stiff I can hardly move it and my shoulders feel like they're carrying the weight of the world. My back muscles hurt and so does my left knee. All that from one little fall.

But there's more to walking in the Dunes than exercise, taking pictures, and falling. There's also education. Today I learned where baby picnic tables come from. Just look:




I also found out that there are some fun and games going on at the park that don't involve propagating the species OR taking pictures, exercising or falling. Look at this incriminating photograph.


I'm sorry these are kind of blurry but I was trying to be discreet and not get too close. Also, when I see a shot that I think won't last, I tend to rush it and I get some 'noise' in the picture if you get my drift.

I Fell......Again

I don't really want to talk about it but if I'm going to pretend that this blog is a journal then I have to. I need to record the major events in my life and my feelings and my musings about them.

No one would believe how much I don't want to admit that I fell again. Or how vehemently I would deny that it has anything, anything at all, to do with my age. But my fall record is dismal. And I know the main reason is bad judgment.

When I was working, I'd work too fast in difficult conditions in an effort to avoid criticism and for the satisfaction of doing a good job. Now, I guess I don't have the good judgment to stay in when conditions are not very safe. Or to at least walk in a safe area. Already, I'm checking the forecast for tomorrow to see when I can head out to the Dunes again knowing full well that the path will be just as slippery, the leaves will be just as wet, and the roots will be just as hidden. But I always think I can overcome little obstacles like these.

Today I got out much earlier. In fact I took my first picture at 3:31. The colors were beautiful but it was overcast and I didn't have as much light, especially at the end of the trail, as I would have liked.

There's a boardwalk in the middle of the trail that is almost a half mile long. It's not in real good repair but you just have to be careful...and I was. Here's an idea of what it looks like in places:


But mostly it looks more like this:

And I noticed very soon after stepping onto it that it was slippery so I was very careful. Therefore, the boardwalk, at least that boardwalk' was not the problem.

I tried to walk fairly fast between picture taking but the spaces in between pictures were pretty short. All of a sudden, my feet shot out from under me, my head slammed into something solid, and my glasses flew somewhere out of sight (which isn't all that far since my vision without them is pretty poor). I rolled over and struggled to my knees and tried to find my glasses. It took a long time and some fervent prayers but I found them. Thank God!

I had slipped on a very short wooden bridge hidden by wet, slippery leaves.

I got up and continued my walk but not as enthusiastically now. I took more pictures but when I got home and looked at them, I didn't remember taking most of them in fact hardly any of them.

And on the way home, I thought a lot about Natasha Richardson. Not the actress part..the death from a head injury part.

I know this sounds so disturbing but it was extremely traumatic for me. (The only other time when I've hit my head this hard before was when I was in about 2nd grade and a 3rd grader pushed me hard against a brick wall. I saw stars, blackness, and my feet slid out from under me. And no teacher or other kid even noticed. lol)

And to add insult to injury, ever since I slipped and fell in the goldfish pond, the hole in my left elbow which must have been much deeper than I thought has caused me a lot of discomfort. I just can't rest my head on my elbows now when I'm sitting at my desk. I do feel like it's starting to get better though.

So now I've hurt my right elbow. Sheeeeesh!

You Capture - Technology

The name of my project is Stacked Technology - New and Old

New:


Old:


Or so it seems.

For more technology or better yet to join the fun, visit Beth at Ishouldbefoldinglaundry.

Maybe Some Things Were Better In The Old Days and Maybe They Weren't

Thirty or forty years ago it wouldn't be at all unusual for a statement like this to be heard among young women, "I thought I was pregnant but I guess I was just late". And others would agree that they had had the same thing happen to them. And life went on.

Today, we don't have to be more than a day or two late before we can confirm what we're fervently hoping for or dreading fearfully. And when what we're fervently hoping for is confirmed, we can begin dreaming and celebrating. Our hearts are full and happy. We make our appointments and begin the long anticipated ritual of pregnancy. Then a few weeks later, there's that dreaded sign that everything isn't okay and later it confirmed. Devastation. Heartbreak. Loss. Pain.

After all, it's estimated that between 20 and 30% of all pregnancies end in miscarriage. This, of course, includes pregnancies that end before a woman is even late.

Back in the day, we had to be more than late. We had to miss three times before we could even make an appointment to confirm what we suspected. Then, and usually only then, could the ritual begin. The appointments. The heartbeats. The love.

On one hand it might have been better back then. There was a suspected loss but not confirmed. Plans weren't interrupted and lives weren't scarred. Maybe that was better.

Today we know early, we dream, we hope, and if it doesn't go as we'd hoped, we mourn. And maybe that's better. Maybe that life that wasn't meant to be deserves to be mourned and missed by his or her mommy.

Maybe things weren't better back in the day.

Mystery Solved - I Think

Last night I posted what I thought was a spooky picture. I had been walking in Dunes State Park and it got late before I got out. I took a few pictures when it was almost dark using my flash and in one of those pictures there were some tiny little points of light - two green, two red - in the trees. I didn't see them until I got home and downloaded my pictures. Unfortunately those strange, tiny points of color didn't show up in the blog picture I posted but maybe it was just as well. I think I have a defective lens. I cleaned it before I went out today but I still had them in the flash pictures that I took tonight. I'm pretty disappointed. I guess I was hoping for something more dramatic.

So since I didn't get started until 5:25 yesterday, I made sure to get an earlier start tonight. I started at 5:01 and I was determined to walk the entire circuit of 3 miles. That's not bad but I haven't done any walking to speak of for two months and then there was the camera in my hand and the leaves and paths that I can't resist photographing. Adding to that was the waning light. I definitely did not want a bunch of flash pictures where the paths disappear in darkness like this one:
And taking pictures without a flash in the waning light required a steady hand or something to brace against and a lot more time.

Now I did have three pictures with strange orbs floating in them. And in two of them the orbs were on the path in front of me - once when the path went off to the right and once when the path went off to the left so I don't really think it was a lens thing. Another one had the orb and it was taken of the scene above. The only difference was that it was taken with a flash so you might think it had something to do with that but the very next picture I took with a flash of the exact same scene didn't have it. Go figure. Remember I took over 200 pictures and only those three had those orbs. What are orbs anyway?

Oh and by the time I got out of the woods, it was 6:25. Too late again. But now I think we really ought to look into that orb mystery. Tomorrow night.

Anybody want to go with me?

I Always Feel Like Somebody's Watching Me

Well really I don't always feel that way. In fact, I hardly ever do. But today, or rather this evening, was another story.

I haven't been out for a walk in the Dunes for ages and ages. And I'm well aware that its getting dark earlier and earlier. I just didn't know it was like 10 minutes a day or something ridiculous like that.

I started my walk at 5:25. I thought that should give me plenty of time to do my 3-mile loop; however, I wasn't really factoring in the Fall colors and all the changes in the scenery that I would have to photograph. It's a compulsion sometimes and today was one of those times.

I encountered a man walking a dog and he said, "You're going to be out after dark." That gave me pause but I figured if it got to be 6 p.m. and I wasn't halfway, I'd turn back. At 5:55, I saw the bird outlook and thought I'd take a few pictures and just head back. But you know how easy it is to lose track of time when you're taking pictures right? I did. And I didn't start back until after 6:00.

And I was still shooting pictures and it was getting dark fast. So I quickened my pace and took fewer pictures. But I did take this one:

Not SO spooky right? Try double clicking on it and tell me if you see a couple of red glows and a couple of green ones. Do you?

What are they?

Ridiculous

This really is getting ridiculous. I don't even want to admit what we've (I've) done now. It's downright embarrassing. My gosh, if I could have foreseen how all this would play out less than 4 months later, would I have been so anxious to have that spawning last Spring? Of course, I would have.

Ever since that first exciting moment, I feel like I've done nothing but move eggs and then fish around. We've had two aquariums in the house before and I didn't like it. One tank is enough, and to tell the truth, I could do without that. I like the fish and everything but the upkeep and the room they take up are just too much. The fish that I really like are the outside fish. There when I want to visit them but out of sight when I'm relaxing in the house. I'm also not keen on the sound of filters. Just because the brand name is Whisper doesn't mean that they do.

So here we are again with two aquariums in the house. One for the littlest babies (some not much larger than a thread) and one for the bigger guys who keep accidentally finding tiny babies in their mouths. But guess what. Here's a picture of the big guys' house and there's getting to be way too big of a disparity in sizes again. See?

So I bought another aquarium. Just a 10 gallon one this time. That's where those two big pink fish that look suspiciously like goldfish are going to reside. And I'm not going to buy or install another aquarium no matter what.

And once again, if I would have known then what I know now about koi husbandry....I'd do it all over again. If fact, I can hardly wait until next Spring's spawning. And the good news is that if even half of these babies survive and we can sell each of them for $5,000, we'll probably break even. Yeahhhhhh!

Naughty Fish

As I have discussed many times, there was talk that young koi could be given to cannibalism if there was too much size disparity among them.

Every day I take one of the larger babies from the hexagon aquarium and move him to the rectangular one reserved for the bigger kids. Today I actually netted two. Then I went back to do some maintenance on the hexagon aquarium and I still don't believe what I saw!

One of the bigger guys, not huge just bigger, was swimming around with a baby koi sticking out of his naughty mouth. Just the front half of the little guy was sticking out and his eyes looked so scared! And the culprit had the unmitigated gall to look surprised. Like he couldn't figure out how that baby got in his mouth.

I got my net and went after him with single minded purpose. I would not take my eyes off him until I caught him and when I did, there was no baby fish in his mouth. He must have been so surprised at getting caught that he spit it out.

Just now I went back to be sure there wasn't still a dark-colored big guy swimming around with a baby sticking out of his mouth and to my shock, there was another fish swimming around with a baby with scared looking eyes sticking out of his mouth. This one was gold though so I know it wasn't the same one. And when I caught him, he too spit out the baby.

Now I'm afraid I know what happened to this unusually marked little beauty that I haven't seen for awhile.


After all I've done for them, this is the thanks I get. Well, I moved them and now they're little fish in a big fish aquarium instead of vice versa. I hope they know why they're there and I hope it teaches the rest of the bigger guys in the hexagon aquarium a lesson.

I'll still feed everybody 5 times a day BUT now I'll be watching them very closely.

You Capture - Still Life

This, for me, was one of the hardest assignments ever. And it's so annoying that I tried to get special attention and assistance from our illustrious teacher, Beth, but it wasn't forthcoming. I was on my own.

If Beth's focus is to try to get us to use our cameras more creatively and more often, then she surely accomplished that this week with me. I took pictures of things that I NEVER would think of taking pictures of and I'm still not sure I've captured the essence of still life photography. I tried though. I really tried.

I started outside and kind of looked for story pictures. Is that what I was supposed to do? I don't know.
I'm not real sure this one qualifies either but it's life and they're still and I used natural light to try to show how the cold weather reflected in the grasses sends the koi into very still, very quiet stages of hibernation. Besides, you know I'm not ever going to pass up an opportunity to shoot some koi pictures no matter how big of a stretch it is.

Then I came in the house and tried to get really artistic. I wasn't but I looked for something beautiful, added light, and took some pictures. The next time still life is our assignment, I bet I'll do better.

Speaking of better. If you want to see some really beautiful still life photography, you'll find it here at Ishouldbefoldinglaundry. And if you haven't already joined in, I dare you to start now.

T-Mobile

Last Monday the unthinkable happened. My cell phone quit working.

I took it to the T-Mobile store and the lady there declared it officially broken. The good news was that I would get a new one at no cost whatsoever. The bad news was that, although they would ship it express (at their expense), it wouldn't arrive for 3 to 5 days.

My first thought was the inconvenience. My next thought was that I would be driving to Beth's as soon as I left the T-Mobile store. What if I had a breakdown. I couldn't even call anybody. Back in the day, that was just life. We didn't have the incredible, amazing convenience of cell phones. And it's not just the convenience either. It's also the safety aspect. Thanks to our cell phones, help is just a phone call away for almost any unfortunate incident.

So now I was almost panicky at the thought of doing without one for 3 to 5 days. And I wasn't happy.

And then, the lady in the T-Mobile store took out a beautiful little flip phone, put my sim card in it so that all my phone numbers were stored there, handed it to me and said to be sure to bring it back. Also, she said if I'd bring back my old phone, she'd mail it back for me.

You know what? The phone arrived on Wednesday. I didn't even open it. I took that new phone in the box and my old phone back to their store, gave them back their flip phone, and walked out with my brand new phone with all my numbers conveniently stored inside.

I don't think cell phone service gets any better than that.

Memories

We went to the beach in Michigan City with Beth & family last summer for the fireworks. It was a such a pleasant evening, with perfect weather.

Apparently the sand and the water and the beautiful sunset reminded Beth of something else that happened at the beach for the first time many years ago. I clicked away while Beth told her audacious story. I'll leave the rest to your imagination.

"I Slipped and Had a Turrible Fall"

Do you remember these words from Chuck Berry's timeless song, My Ding-A-Ling? The words go on to say, "I fell so hard I heard bells ring but held onto my ding-a-ling-a-ling.

That's the song that kept going through my head after my turrible fall. I was catching the last of the tiny little dark colored, hard-to-see babies from the goldfish pond. I had just snagged the last two (at the time I thought only one of them) when my foot slipped on that wet liner and I fell. Hard. On the lovely rocks that are supposed to decorate the pond as well as provide hiding places for babies. My shoes and jeans were SOAKED with some really foul smelling water. I skinned my left elbow and several places on my right hand and I was pretty sure my left little finger was broken. But I held onto those two little babies in my net and that's all I thought about as I struggled to get out of that pond and to the pitcher where the babies needed to be deposited. Pronto!

I got those precious little entities into the water and went in the house to change clothes. Then I scrubbed all the places where the skin was broken as ruthlessly as I could. I put on dry clothes and went back out to retrieve the waiting babies.

And that crazy Chuck Berry song kept running through my head.

And, friends, that's the difference between falling when you're doing something you want to be doing and falling at work. Because when I fell at work, no song went through my head. I always felt angry, betrayed, and hurt.

I won't say I liked falling in that smelly pond because I didn't. All I'm saying is things sure look different from this perspective. And it's a perspective that I like.

Oh and, by the way, if you aren't familiar with the Chuck Berry song, My Ding-A-Ling, try to find a copy to hear because it's REALLY cute.

I Can't Stop Moving

In an earlier post I reported that I had caught seven baby koi in the goldfish pond and moved them to the aquarium in the house. I really couldn't feel comfortable leaving them outside in the small, rather shallow pond over winter.

Since I felt better about moving seven of them, I went fishing again. This time I caught sixteen more.


This was very encouraging to me because I had now retrieved 23 of the baby koi that I had so recklessly dumped into that little tiny pond. Up until then, I wouldn't have put really BIG money on finding even 10 of them in there.

Somewhere in the back of my mind a new plan started to present itself. Maybe I should move all those babies into the house. There probably weren't that many left out there anyway and at least I wouldn't have to worry about the remainder of them becoming encased in ice in a pond where the bottom is above the frost line.

So I had a big ol' fishing expedition. And I caught 50 more babies. Here's part of that group.

Mr. Right and I finally culled a few. I think we lost a total of eight. Some just died (probably from the stress of being moved constantly) and some were so misshapen that it didn't make sense to keep them. This part still makes me sad.

A day later I was gazing into that almost empty goldfish pond when I spotted two dark colored babies swimming across the bottom. And I was determined to get them.

Those two turned into about 10. And as I was scooping the last two, I slipped and fell. But that's a story for another day.

We've set up a second aquarium for the bigger babies. There is already such a size disparity that I can hardly believe it and I've read that koi are given to cannibalism if some get too big while others remain very tiny. So as the big ones continue to get even bigger in the old aquarium, I choose one of them a day to move to the new aquarium for the big kids. And so it goes.

I just know that next year it'll be easier; but for now........ I just can't stop moving these baby koi.

What Can You Say To A Pregnant Lady?

Beth at Ishouldbefoldinglaundry posted here about what not to say to a pregnant woman. I commented on her post that it's been so long since I was pregnant that I don't even remember the offensive things people said. But I do know there were a few because I broke all size records especially when I carried the twins for 42 DOCUMENTED weeks.

But it brings me to a really, serious question. What CAN you say to a pregnant woman or must you not say anything at all?

I once asked a pregnant woman when she was due and she said something like "NOT UNTIL APRIL 2010 (or some far off date). I KNOW. I look like I'm ready to go any MINUTE. EVERYBODY tells me that!" Well I hadn't told her anything. I was just happy for her being pregnant. There's something about pregnant women that excites me. I'm happy for them and emotional for the wonder of it all.

So this might remind us that pregnant women are sensitive women. They don't want us to judge their size or speculate about how pregnant they are or why they're pregnant or if it's good that they're pregnant. And sometimes they're hormonal. And we've ALL been there - pregnant or not.

I come from a family where we tend to carry big. Sorry girls, but you know it's true. I'll take the blame. I started it. I've seen pictures of my mother pregnant that, while I was trying to figure out if she was pregnant in the picture, the date is saying she's due in a couple of weeks. My sister carried the same way.

But back to the question at hand. What can you say? I know one thing you can say. Sarah, Beth's sister, told me that she was shopping at Target one day and someone asked when she was due. Sarah said not until December and the lady said, "You look SO CUTE!". It made her day.

We probably shouldn't say anything to pregnant women. First of all, their pregnancy is really not everybody's business. Secondly, sometimes when you inquire about someone's pregnancy, they aren't. And that's just uncomfortable. to put it mildly.

But I think pregnant women are beautiful, brave, and blessed; and, somehow I want to convey that. Is that so wrong? If not, is there a way to do it?

I'd love to hear from some women who are or were recently pregnant. Is there anything okay to say? If I think I have to say something, what might I say that you'd LIKE to hear. Anything?

Or should I mind my own business and be inwardly joyful for them and say a silent prayer that they have a beautiful, successful pregnancy.

I suspect that I just thought of the answer. DANG it!

You Capture - Red

Beth's You Capture this week is RED! It should have been easy. Last Thursday I saw my shot and didn't take it. As usual, I thought I had plenty of time. Today it's the same shot but the subject has changed. It's deteriorated by one week and it ain't pretty.

But it's all I got.


For some really good RED, visit Beth at Ishouldbefoldinglaundry and see what real photographers posted.

It's Just Hanging Out There

Tonight Beth and I will have dinner together. We'll laugh and we'll talk with the kids. We're going to be work widow/school widow together for the evening and we'll take advantage of this opportunity to spend some time together.

She has a big event going on tomorrow and I have big changes in my world of koi husbandry. Maybe we'll play the Beatles Rock Band for a little while or maybe we'll just talk. She'll give me a tour of the results of their weekend landscape update and I'll lament the large amount of landscaping that I haven't done this summer.

And we'll talk about her appointment on Monday and we'll be optimistic because the really, really bad thing about having an anomaly in your blood work is for it to not be found. We'll talk about the wonderful care she's getting from doctors with specialties in areas where we need specialties and logic will tell us that there's an answer out there. And faith will tell us that there's going to be a good outcome.

But it's hard. We tend to be proactive people and the waiting is hard.

I guess we should look at it as more time to pray.

It's Getting Cold Out

Our You Capture assignment the other day was The Feeling Of Fall. I think I made it quite clear in my submission how I felt about Fall. Overall, I'm not a fan. I used to think it was just because for the last fourteen years it meant that I was getting real close to spending some miserable days and hours outside but now I'm pretty sure it's not all about that because I'm not working and I still dread winter and I'm not enjoying Fall.

I just cleaned the filters in the ponds and that water was cold. I looked at my big koi and didn't feed them because once it gets really cold, they can only be fed once a day and I fed them earlier. It wasn't that much fun to feed them either. They kind of drifted to the top and ate but it wasn't voracious, enthusiastic eating with splashing and assertiveness. It was picking and partaking but not really enjoying. They're definitely losing their appetites.

And then there are all the baby koi in the goldfish pond. I didn't feel great about putting them in there when I did it but now I feel even more uneasy. In fact, I've captured seven of them so far to put in the aquarium in the house. I just don't have confidence that they'll get through the long cold winter out there.

I have a hard time going outside for anything now. I like to be in. I like to nest. And I like to be warm. I'm pretty sure I was meant to live somewhere else.

Decisions

We ran our old car to death. It had 168,000 miles on it. The lights were so dim you could hardly see where you were going on a dark night. The turn signals only worked when they wanted to and the ABS light was on all the time. So was the check engine light. The windshield wipers wouldn't go down anymore when you turned them off. (That was embarrassing.) The rocker panels on the sides were pretty rusted out. The gas gauge didn't work. The blower for the air conditioner/heater was faulty and would only blow hard on high and then it ROARED! But it never failed to get us where we wanted to go so I'm not complaining. It just became time to buy another car.

We are aware that this is a terrible time to buy a used car but we just couldn't go into winter with that old Venture. And with being retired, I want to be able to travel to Virginia, Michigan, Kentucky, Nebraska, or Colorado by myself if I'm needed. So we started looking for a dependable car.

Our focus was on either a Honda Odyssey or a Toyota Sienna and we had a line on an '07 Odyssey with low mileage but that's pretty much all it had. We were a little disappointed when we test drove it but told ourselves, "Well, it's got everything we really need". Before we finalized that purchase, we looked around. We saw an '06 Sienna that was cheaper but I thought the air didn't blow REALLY cold and Mr. Right didn't like the well used look of the trailer hitch on the back. He wondered what kind of heavy pulling it might have done . We looked at some newer Siennas but couldn't find an agreeable price point. Then someone pointed out the Odyssey on the lot.

They brought it up for us and as I rode along while Mr. Right drove, I had this thought: THIS is our car. It had everything that we'd wanted when we first started talking about a car.

So we had a choice. This older (by two years) Odyssey with 12,000 more miles and for about $4500 less or the new barer bones Odyssey. And we chose the '05 with more miles.

Pretty much every car we've ever purchased, was chosen because it was a bargain. In other words, it wasn't really chosen it was just purchased. This car we chose with our hearts.

We've only had it a week but we LOVE it every single time we get in it.

I don't necessarily think we made the practical decision but I believe with all my heart that we made the smart decision.

You Capture - The Feeling Of Fall

It seems like everybody loves Fall.....except me. I do love the crispness and coolness of the weather. That feeling I like. But the following photos illustrate the feeling of Fall that leaves me cold (forgive me).

The lonely bloom amongst all the seed heads waiting to be buried.

The tomatoes that aren't exciting anymore:

The grasses forming seed heads of their own:

The lonely, empty nest that just a few short months ago held so much promise:

And, the koi languishing in the bottom of the pond almost as if they're practicing hibernation. (By the way, Amber, Erin and Nancy, can you spot Alabaster, Fu Manchu and Cubbie?)

But, there's beauty too and lots of it. Otherwise how could we ever bear the closing down of warmth and sunshine to start the dark, cold season of winter.

For more and much much better photos depicting the feeling of fall, visit Beth at Ishouldbefoldinglaundry.