Almost Thanksgiving Already
Really glad for the cool weather. Horrible hot summer with record number of 90 degree days, even some in Sept. Moderate drought in summer with lots of pricey sprinkling . Seems spent a lot of time moving sprinklers and trying to keep cool. Early fall brought us a couple of weeks of rain every day for 2 weeks- wish we had gotten it spread out more. Lawn mower wheels actually sank into front lawn when mowing. Next door he put in drainage tiles from down spout around to down side of hill. Neighbor rototiled entire length of front yard along the hedge for 60 feet-I'm worried about erosion the the hill. Been going on some interesting walks to state parks. One to Minneopa near Mankato with a wonderful waterfall and trail, another to Lake Marian "big woods" trails. Both were fun walks with beautiful scenery. Yesterday we went on the Ox Cart trail and saw a golden tamarak which I hadn't noticed before and another diiferent evergreen with an unusal pine core that I didn't recognize. Have been collecting various specimens (acorns, bark, berries, leaves etc ) for an interesting visual potpourri. Yesterday Jim spied several Cedar Waxwings on some crabapple trees by the HS arboreum. We watched them for several monutes gobbling up the tint apples. These are beautiful birds that I don't think I ever saw until a couple of months ago when I found a dead one in the backyard. It was so beautiful- like a cardinasl with the feather tuft on top of its head, yellow belly, yellow wing tips, and red 'wax" splotch on each wing. Burried it in my pet cemetery. Also have a red headed woodpecker hanging around a lot this year.