Monday, October 10, 2016

Hikes, Colour and Frost!

Thanksgiving Weekend has been amazing, beautiful weather, bright colours, lots of people out hiking, and then this morning, heavy frost!  You could feel the Arctic air moving in as the day wore on yesterday; it was down to freezing by the time we went to bed.  And this morning, the yard was white.  A lot of plants died abruptly, flowers faded, and summer was definitely gone!

On Friday I hiked a new-to-me section of the Bruce Trail here, and some of the leaves like these Beech leaves were just glowing in the sun.
It was mostly a deciduous forest, and in places you wouldn't know fall was here.

But then you came upon more of those bright leaves.

Overhead the leaves were glowing too, though it seems that these change colour between my camera, the computer I edit them on, the computer I post them on, and my ipad that I read blogs on!

We were intrigued to find substantial crevice caves along the cliff in the middle of the forest.  For about 100 yards the deep cleft in the limestone fell away at our feet.  It was really tempting to climb down and investigate!  I liked these three large cedars growing directly out of the limestone wall on the far side, 30 feet above the floor of the crevice.

There were lots of mushrooms too.

On Saturday, we headed south to visit relatives, as it seems everyone does at Thanksgiving.  Enjoyed the turkey and the visiting, and the drive home a day later was spectacular.  We took the new camper van and slept in the driveway, trying out the double bed arrangement - that's another story!

We thought the fall colour had almost never been better, mile after mile after we got about half-way home, of bright red and orange Sugar Maples in fencerows and along the edge of woodlots.

Our son and his wife from northern Ontario made it here late Sunday evening for a visit.  We could feel the temperature begin to drop sharply by 4 in the afternoon, and when I got up (before everyone else), the yard was white with the first heavy frost of the year.  I made my coffee and headed out to get some pictures of another sign of the seasons!

Whether it was the pot of mums on the deck, the Butterfly Bush, or the tomatoes, the frost got them all.  Time to put the last of the garden to bed now.  We enjoyed a very nice visit with our son and daughter-in-law, and sent them home with various things - I'm trying to downsize!  I puttered in the garden a bit, and then fell asleep for one of those late afternoon naps.  I've had my fill of turkey, like many other Canadians I'm sure.  And I'm not even going to comment on American politics this weekend!


14 comments:

  1. It's a beatiful time of year, from the colour to the frost. Great post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice photos of the changing season. I know just what you mean about the colors in photos changing from life to digital camera to computer. None of our three computers renders colors the same, and they seem to have the most trouble with reds. Strangely, the least expensive computer gives the most true-to-life colors.

    ReplyDelete
  3. With all that beauty surrounding you why even think of anything else!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Beautiful fall leaves! This time of year is the best.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The frost on the leaves is stunning. A trial sleep-out??? Waiting to hear more.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Oh my the first frost---wow!!! Beautiful images of Fall color. Perfect place to hike. We have had some nights with temps just above freezing so I suppose we may see some frost soon----or not!
    The Snow Geese are here in the Valley now until probably April. Drive anywhere in the Valley or the Stilly valley too and they will be there. So amazing.
    MB

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh and BTW: Hope you had a happy thanksgiving weekend.
    MB

    ReplyDelete
  8. A perfect Thanksgiving weekend, families, Turkey and fall colours, nice to have some family time too.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Lovely photos . We had a light frost yesterday morning and this morning but for the rest of the week the nights are to be a bit warmer between 10C and 14C so no frost for a while . I love how the frost forms on everything and makes the land look so pretty when it sparkles in the early morning sun . The trees here are changing faster every day but still not in full swing here . Thanks for sharing , Have a good day !

    ReplyDelete
  10. Wonderful colours FG. No sign of frost over here, yet, though dew is in the air and, so far, we're having a lovely autumn. Re the fissure in the limestone, I'm guerssing that's water that's caused it? Or ice? It's limestone country near us and the place is riddled with underground caves, caverns etc that people actually explore - not me!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Gorgeous fall colours. We got the drop in temperatures as well. Those crevices bring back good memories of hiking at points further south on the escarpment.

    ReplyDelete
  12. I can't believe how much color you have already, your images are gorgeous!! The frost looks just like a sugar frosting, those images are beautiful!!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Wow those colors are fantastic, especially next to the blue sky.
    No sign of frost here yet.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Gorgeous pictures! And I especially love the frosty ones. Thank you for not talking politics. I'm so sick of it and we still have a month to go. Can you give us Justin? He's the best! :-)

    ReplyDelete