Oh, wow, what a second day of October! As much as I wanted to get outdoors, I remained tied to the laptop all day with work that didn’t end until 9:00 tonight when Bearing Drift’s live coverage of the U.S. Senate debate in Richmond concluded.
After dark, thanks to a friend who posted on her Facebook page about how gorgeous the stars were tonight over in Fishersville on the other side of Staunton, I grabbed my laptop and headed to the deck. There was still a little time to enjoy the outdoors in the quiet of the evening in my corner of the world west of Staunton.
What a work of art illuminated in the darkness.
Sitting here in the warm 72-degree temp with a warm breeze, all I can hear are the crickets all around, loudly chirping as they do every fall, and the tree frogs, and the wind as it rustles through the trees, rounding the corner of the house, and whooshing across the deck. A warm breeze on October 2 at 9:30 p.m. … enjoy it while it’s here.
Months of rain have turned our deck railing the same color as the little tree frog.
The little tree frog who slept on the deck railing today, snuggled up next to my window box, has disappeared. I suppose he’s joined his cousins and is trilling in the darkness. When our girlie was still living at home, she loved to hear the tree frogs at night.
Early falling leaves clutter the ground.
I took a short break in late afternoon to meander the yard and enjoy the sunny, breezy day. Thunder was rumbling off the distant mountains but the storm never made it to us.
Meandering around the yard, I was searching for what may be still blooming and the flora fingerprint of fall.
The rich hues of autumn sedum.
This flower bed needs some attention. I’ll weed when removing some coreopsis to share with a friend.
The blooming peach tree loses its leaves early each year. While others haven’t even begun to display the colors of fall, these branches are already bare.
Enjoy ten seconds of the night noises of crickets and tree frogs: Autumn 45 [1]. It’s autumn in the Shenandoah Valley….
Photos by Lynn R. Mitchell