A favorite time of the year

All seasons have something really great about them. Last spring I wrote about how the new leaves on the grapevines are a glimpse of the rebirth we all can have. And summer is great because of all the fresh veggies and fruit that appear in the markets. Nothing is better than a freshly picked ear of corn or a freshly picked tomato in a BLT. Fall has the beautiful leaves on the different trees. I really love walking on an apple crisp fall day, looking at the different species of trees and how each has such a different brilliant color. I love the sound of crunching through the mounds of raked leaves and I don't even mind raking that bad.

We don't use the blower much, that is for amateurs. We mow the leaves into confetti then push them to the street with the discharge from the mower. Then only a little finessing is required to arrange them into piles for the city to pick up. Or we rake them onto a tarp and drag them back to the garden. We also push mow in the beds and suck them into the bagger which also gets dumped into the garden. The squirrels take care of the acorns. It is amusing to see where an oak tree will grow in the spring. They really like my flowerbed in the front, it must be very easy to dig in. I'll be pulling trees from there next spring by the dozens.

There's no better place to be on a Saturday than southern Indiana

Saturday was an interesting day. Kent had to be at work at 4:00am, which meant a 2:00am wakeup call. Jake needed a 6:00am wakeup as he was going to Indy to take a IU Honors program test in Spanish. The night before he had received the best gift in the world for him; an "on the floor ticket" to a political rally for our congressman, Mike Sodrel. The only complication was that the doors at the rally closed at 12:30. And it was 120 miles from the Speedway High School where the testing was being done to the High School in Sellersburg where the rally was taking place. He walked out of the testing at 10:30 and I dropped him off in the parking lot in Sellersburg at 12:10. Needless to say that the posted speed limit of 70 was merely a suggestion that was ignored. I felt blessed because as I slowed to take the #9 exit off of I-65, a sheriff's car went past me. It was the only time that trip where I was legal. Whew! I told Jake we didn't have time to make a mistake in where we were going, but as we drove the 1 mile to the school we knew we were on the right track as there were mulitudes of police cars, American flags, and protestors. Oh btw, the rally was for our congressman but the speaker was the President. After parking many blocks away from the school I walked back just to hang out, was approached by a couple who had been given tickets they couldn't use (no picture ID with them). So I was also able to attend the rally, arriving in the door to the gym just as the prayer was being said. Afterwards we were told to make our way to the end of the balcony and sit on the stairs. I was from the sidelines to the basketball goal away from the podium and straight even with it. Jake was about 3/4s of a basketball court from the speakers on the floor in front of them. We both enjoyed ourselves very much even though it was a capacity crowd (4000) and very warm. It ranks right up there with the DC trip to watch the Reagan cortege.

AND SUDDENLY IT WAS FALL

The leaves were at their peak over the weekend. It was lovely driving to Indy for the football game. The next few nights saw the temp drop down into some good frost zones and suddenly it was fall. The trucks in the pictures get moved each day - this is at most a 12 hour drop of leaves!