Wednesday, October 12, 2011

October Fields, etc.

 Neighbor Bill's Hay Bales
October, late afternoon

There are times in the late afternoon when the sun is at just the right angle to make all the colors of the hay field and woods almost glow with deeper, richer tones. I love that time of day! And of course, fall is my very favorite time of year! While our kids were all still living at home, we celebrated Thanksgiving in mid-October. It's a great time for a celebration, and who wouldn't feel thankful when surrounded by all this beauty God has given us!

 Corn field south of the house

We're having an extraordinary October, starting with great weather for our son's wedding, and now several days where the daytime highs have been in the upper 70s or lower 80s. Except for digging the potatoes and picking the remaining peppers that should ripen in the sunshine this week, the garden is done for the year. It's kinda nice it works out this way, for I suspect that my waning enthusiasm for gardening is shared by many.


 Just one more shot of one of the maple trees in the backyard
They start out with green leaves in the summer, of course, then they turn to gold, then orange, then a deep rust color. I love late afternoon when the sunlight shines through the leaves.

I took this photo just a couple days ago, but we've had a good strong, dry wind since then and many of those leaves are now on the ground, where we all enjoy shuffling through them and hearing that wonderful, crunchy sound of the leaves beneath our feet. It was beautiful weather when our oldest son and four of their children came to visit last weekend. It was perfect for being outdoors. This is what I love about October - cooler, drier, bright sunshine, and full of color!  It's almost hard to imagine that cold, bleak, dreary, and icy November (when we rarely see sunshine) is just around the corner. It's definitely a transition month.

 Sunset over pines in west field

The sun sets fast. There was a beautiful sunset, and in the time it took for me to run to the house to get the camera and get back (about three minutes), it had lost a little of the previous color. We're losing daylight fast this time of year. It's dark when we get up in the morning and dark by about 7 PM. And this is only October!  I don't think I'd enjoy living in Lapland, where winter days contain only four hours of daylight.


 Soybean field in the morning


I think these beans are about ready to harvest. I'm hoping we'll have alfalfa in this field next year, for the dogs and I miss our walking trail. (It's a lot harder to make a trail through the soybean field.) We were just noticing tonight that the soybeans have dropped their leaves and now it's just the stalks and bean pods remaining.


October at New Scandinavia Church 
before the fire in early December 2010 destroyed it
It still seems strange to drive past that gaping hole in the ground where New Scandinavia once stood. I miss seeing this view on my way home from Rice Lake.


Photobucket

15 comments:

  1. I love Autumn and the true wild side of nature and in its full splendour.
    You have captured the colours and fields beautifully, I`m envious!

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  2. Your pictures are always so gorgeous. I don't think our autumn is going to be as pretty as in years past due to the ginormous amount of rain we've had. Still pretty but not as vibrant...some have skipped the gold and gone straight to brown.

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  3. Love the pictures Judy! I so miss the color changes of the midwest fall! :) Thanks for sharing!

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  4. The photos could be postcards! So lovely.

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  5. Lovely pictures! So sorry to hear about the Church. It was very beautiful. Thanks for visiting my page and turning me on to yours!

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  6. You really caught how beautiful fall really is in your photos!

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  7. Wisconsin is so beautiful in the fall and love your pics. Nice to have such bright color in your own backyard.

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  8. Gorgeous colours at that golden hour of the day in the golden time of the year. Wish it was dry and crisp here instead of wet and soggy.

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  9. What gorgeous pictures, Judy! Hay bales in the field are one of the most beautiful scenes to me. Thank you for sharing your wonderful photography.

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  10. Nice photos, Judy. Our fall colors, though pretty, aren't nearly this spectacular. Last night, however, the moon was absolutely amazing. Did you see it too?

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  11. Great Photos! I love the late afternoon too. Our yard looked like gold. The sun shinning through the yellow maple, made a gold light all around.

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  12. Beautiful pictures! We just ended our lovely days here too. What glorious sunsets and cool nights. We are done with beans and now are in horizontal corn...sigh.... there are two fields of it then we get back to the vertical corn, and I will hopefully get back out in the field. If I can I will try to take some pictures of the flat corn.

    LOVED your description of shuffling through crunchy leaves. That is one of my perfect images of fall!

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  13. October has been a beautiful month, so far. About as perfect as fall weather can be. I think October would be a great month to have Thanksgiving in, sometimes it gets over shadowed by the start of the Christmas season. It definatly would be prettier as we get gloom and rain in November too. (I think most of the Thanksgivings in the last ten years have been dreary).

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  14. I always think of God when I embrace all the colors of autumn and the beauty around. :)

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  15. Lovely photos, the colours are always rich when the sun is on it's way down. Thanks for showing us around. Just as summer is on it's way out, maybe like you I can be thankful that I can put the garden to bed for another year ! I remembered & recognised the last photo before I read any text & I wondered if there were any plans to rebuild it.

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