Off again

It is fair to say we’ve been really caught up in Fall this year. Living Upstate New York, we always enjoy it, but this is the first year since 2022 that it has been particularly spectactular.

Additionally, in the meantime I have recovered the ability to travel further by road.

To an extent, I suspect we lose ourselves in what Nature provides as an outlet from the daily awfulness of news from around the world, even though apart from drastically rising prices, we are so far mostly untouched.

Only appalled by it.

.

So, after a day at home, we were off again, though we started out with no particular destination in mind.

After picking up our mail at the post office, we turned south out of Cambridge along the newly refurbished bit of route 22, that is until we came to traffic cones marking out the latest stage of the project.

Next to slow poke drivers, Grant really detests road works, so we turned off.

.

Is there anything lovelier than country lanes in Fall?

.

At every turn another beautiful sight.

.

There are many more photographs than I can ever post!

.

In Summer I like to watch tall corn waving in the wind, but I am equally glad in Fall when it is harvested, re-opening the landscape.

.

I even like the sight of all those rows of stalks.

And how they reveal the contour of the land, though it could make you feel quite queasy!

.

Single rows of corn remain in almost every field .

.

The fields are demarcated by old stone walls and untidy rows of trees and bushes.

.

Once Fall reaches this stage, a sudden windstorm may bring many leaves down. What remains is still beautiful, but it would be a shame to miss the trees looking so spectacular.

.

We were heading vaguely in the direction of Vermont but I’m not sure we ever actually crossed the state line, meandering along brightly decorated avenues.

.

As you can see, many leaves had fallen and some trees were already naked.

.

Orange was never my favourite colour, but in Nature it’s grand!

.

This was only a brief excursion and soon we were back in Cambridge.

.

Off to the side of Owl Kill Road, the field was full of flaming red sumac.

.

Owl Kill passes through an avenue of….

.

…I wish someone could identify these trees for me.

(No owls are killed here. “Kill” is from Middle Dutch kille meaning riverbed, stream or channel. This road crosses over the Owl Kill River.)

.

As we continued into the village, the sky where we were headed grew dark.

.

While in the opposite direction the trees were nicely lit up.

.

From the time on the photograph, I see that we were late for cat lunches again, but we don’t get demerits anymore. Grant offers treats with such regularity, the little darlings are never at risk for hunger pangs.

They have a soft life.

.