Changing of Seasons

[Bucky]

Ahhhh, here it is almost the middle of September (already??), and here in the Midwest USA, we are starting the transition from summer into fall.

I live in a rural area where there is lots of farmland.  Some of the farmers are already harvesting their corn crops (which didn't do well at all this year due to the severe rain drought we had  ).

We have a field next to our house that we lease to a farmer.  This year he planted soybeans.  Within the last week or so, the soybeans are making the change from green to yellow.  If you step out on the front porch and look at the field, it appears the sun is shining brightly on the field, when in actuality, it's just the beans changing colors.

I love driving down the road and seeing the patchwork in the fields of corn, soybeans and wheat.

I've noticed some of the leaves are already turning colors too.  For those of you who have been around the boards for a while, you might remember one of my group challenges I had a couple years ago where we collected fall leaves and saved them.  I still have mine and when I open the book they are preserved in, it smells exactly like fall.   

I just love the colors of fall - all the bright reds, oranges, and yellows.  I only wish the trees stayed these colors for a longer time.

Just yesterday, I stopped at a local roadside stand and bought some gourds, small pumpkins and other fall items to use as decorations in my home.  Later today, I plan on bringing up my silk fall mums and pumpkin decorations from the basement to decorate the house.

At some point this fall, once the acorns fall - I will go outside and gather some up to use as decorations and also to keep for the squirrels during the winter months.

After having such a hot, hot summer - I am looking forward to cooler days.  I'm hoping to convince my family to have a campfire out in our portable pit again - I love the smell of a campfire.     Throw in a hay-rack ride, and apple cider and you have a perfect fall evening.

A town near me has a big pumpkin festival every year (it started yesterday) - they make everything under the sun with pumpkin in it - pancakes, cookies, ice cream, fudge, smoothies - all kinds of things.  (I guess it helps since one of the Libby Pumpkin packing plants is here.)  In October they will have a "Punkin Chuckin' contest" - people come from all over the US to participate.  It's fun to watch.  (They catapult pumpkins with machines that have been built - ranging from wooden rigs built by high school kids, to big elaborate contraptions built by local companies.)  Good 'ole Midwest entertainment!   

I think my Sjogren's behaves more during the fall season . . . and as Martha would say, "that's a good thing!".   

Even though it's not "officially" fall yet (next weekend is the official date) . . . early Happy Fall to you all.   

Bucky

[Cheryl]

Bucky, I want to come to your house for some of those festivities!  (I love the fall, too.)  The only preparation I've made is planting some pansies, but you're making me want to decorate. 

I hope fall is a time of beautiful surroundings, great weather, and extra-good health for each of you!
Cheryl

[lynnmarie219]

Fall is my favorite season!


I love to watch the colors change.....the cooler,crisper air....and all of the fall decorations. 

[A66eyroad]

Fall is my very favorite, too! My husband and I got married in the fall; we'll be married 20 years this October! We always go up the the North Carolina mountains (Highlands and Cashiers) for our anniversary trip. Usually we camp, but this year we plan to spring for a real bed in a bed and breakfast!

I love it when the leaves change and there's a little snap and the smell of a far-away campfire in the air.

[Tivia]

I love fall, I also live in kinda the midwest...well southern midwest  This will be my first fall with a new illness yay. I am hoping it behaves itself because the summer almost did me in. I want to bike ride so bad I also live in a very rural area..so I tend to panic if I get on a lonely trail or out by myself. I dont want any surprise sjogrens things to pop up, I seem to worry a lot now that I got diagnosed 

[eyeamdry]

Bucky, living in Michigan, I can pretty much relate to your post and the difference in crops in the fields.  Although my hubby would be the one to notice more than I.  We too have farmland just two houses over and I can often hear the tractor out doing the fields. We live semi-rural and everybody who has an acre thinks they are farmers and all have different models of John Deere tractors, depending on what they can afford.  We have a new lawn tractor and it's not a Deere. 

I am often caught behind the big farm equipment going down the road and sometimes it's a trail of several types of equipment and you can be caught doing 20 mph for an hour.  They are oversized and take up more than half the road so passing isn't usually an option.  I remember well, a close neighbor and friend who was going down to the gas station about 3 miles away on a Sunday night to fill up his truck for Monday morning.  He was traveling a reasonable speed along a somewhat hilly road and came over the hill and back ended some farm equipment.   He lost his life.  Sorry to turn this thread into a "boo boo."  I think of him every September.  It also reminds me to have patience when around farm equipment.  Lucy