The Colors of Autumn Leaves

One of the joys of autumn is taking a walk in the woods, listening to the crunching of the leaves, watching the trees and their leaves change colors, until only the skeleton of the trees remain, haunting the sky line with their scribbles and lines.  I have carved out a morning walk her at Woodlawn, heading up the road on a pathway made by our neighbors the Kinney's, then crossing the road at the top and heading south through the Woodlawn woods, tramping a path through the woods, forming a circle, ending up around Victoria, then circling back to Theissens and down to the Woodlawn road and home, about twenty minutes.  It's nice not to have to jump in a car and we can expand it to include the campground as well if we want to walk farther, or head out Victoria, if we want to go that way.

Creek at Chautauqua Institute

Fallen leaves

More Fallen Leaves

The Woods of Woodlawn

Chautauqua Gray at 8:45

I was up at 6:00, no snow on the ground but during my walk there was some sleet, a bit of ice on the ground.  It's another Chautauqua gray morning, as you can see, and I had better get used to it as the days of autumn are coming to an end and then it's lots of gray, little sun until May, hard to believe.  But it makes you cherish the few winter days of sunlight even more.  Snow or sleet is forecast for most of the day though tomorrow is supposed to be partly sunny, the highs in the upper 40's.  When I got up it was 33 degrees and now, at 9:00, it's 36. One of two fishermen were out earlier but for now, the lake seems empty, placid, the sky windless.