Back to fall 2017. Autumnal splendor was late to the party in the Shenandoah Valley this year. We began with hopeful indicators, rain and cooler temps in late August, but that dissipated and the weather turned hot and dry. Colors getting underway halted for the most part and we despaired of ever seeing them. How we've longed for our wondrously painted trees, without having to spray paint the leaves ourselves. But now, we've had rain and colder temperatures and ta da! Fall. It's too late for some trees but many are strutting their stuff.

I glory in this time of year. Granted, I'm besotted in April, giddy with spring fever But October brings a mellow kind of joy extending into November. I'm happy for the summer heat to go, and though I miss the flowers, pollen isn't my friend. Frost brings freedom to us allergy sufferers. I've cleared the vegetable garden and planted greens, beets, and radishes in the salad patch We shall see if they emerge and thrive in late winter or early spring. I missed my window for a fall garden.

I'm also writing, of course, working on the next time slip/time travel romance in my Ladies in Time Series. I may never finish this third book. Writing while hopping up to walk a puppy every half hour or forget to my regret is challenging. My other alternative is to put him in his pen and insist on 'nighty night' no matter what time of day it is. I feel like I have a toddler in my care. And yes, he is adorable. I got him because I was devastated after losing my dear little Sadie and had forgotten what an exuberant puppy is. I remember now. ~

Below are some pictures from our farm or just up the road. There are also pics of the wooded hills behind our farm.

"Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains, a torch flung to the trees." ~Faith Baldwin, American Family

"The bright summer had passed away, and gorgeous autumn was flinging its rainbow-tints of beauty on hill and dale." ~Cornelia L. Tuthill, "Virginia Dare: Or, the Colony of Roanoke," 1840

"It was one of those perfect English autumnal days which occur more frequently in memory than in life. The rich colours of grass and earth were intensified by the mellow light of a sun almost warm enough for spring..." ~P.D. James, A Taste for Death

"Autumn repays the earth the leaves which summer lent it." ~Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742–1799), translated by Norman Alliston, 1908

"No spring nor summer’s beauty hath such grace
As I have seen in one Autumnal face..."
~John Donne, "Elegy IX: The Autumnal"

(The woods up behind our meadow)

 (The old cemetery at Cooks Creek Presbyterian Church a mile up the road. and maple tree in front of the church below.)

(Buggy going past our farm from last fall)

(Tree in the mist in our meadow)