Fall Foliage Has Fallen

Friday, 21 October, 2011 - As I expected, we saw the end of the good weather for fall foliage photography on the 11th of October. It has been overcast since then with periods of rain (torrential a couple times, once lasting all night) and wind (gale force one night at 8 on the Beaufort scale), so while a few trees still have some fall foliage, most of them look like those in the photo on the right, taken during one of the brief glimpses of the sun we'll get now and then.
    I've seen this kind of weather pattern occur so often in the past at the peak of the fall color that I've gotten to expect it. There must be a reason for it, but not being a meteorologist I don't know what it is, however expecting it to happen is why we went on so many fall foliage forays while we had the chance and very glad now that we did.
    Otherwise, it's been pretty quiet around here. We did do a trip to Ottawa Friday evening two weeks ago for Sandra to attend a longtime friend's birthday party. While she was there, I walked around downtown taking a few night photos, such as the one here and here. We then returned to Ottawa a couple days ago for a medical appointment Sandra had, but we didn't linger. We also continue to attend Tai Chi classes twice a week and we bought a little electric snowblower and that's as exciting as it's been.
    For my latest photos, click here.

Fantastic Fall Foliage Forays 2 & 3

Wednesday, 12 October, 2011 - As forecasted, our weather stayed beautiful through Monday and Tuesday, so Sandra and I were out again both days, driving through the countryside west and southwest of here in search of fall foliage photos and found quite a few waiting for us.
    Monday, we traveled west along Highway 7 as far as Fall River Road near Sharbot Lake and then drove the length of the road, photo on the right being one I found along it.
    Then yesterday, we traveled southwest to Westport and along the way discovered surprisingly scenic Parish Road. This is a road I've often wanted to travel because it has a 'Historic Site' sign at the end of it, but had never ventured down that road because it looked more like someone's laneway than it did an actual road. However, when we discovered the other end of it, I knew it was a through road and decided there was no time like the present to check it out, which we did. The historic site proved to be just a placque marking the location where an early church had been and hardly worth the effort to find it, but the rest of that short road was worth the drive. The photo here was shot from the road, which means that even if we never return there - we'll always have Parish.
    This is proving to be one of the most colorful autumns we've had in years. I've shot enough photos to keep me busy processing until snow falls and that gives me new scenes to shoot.
    Unfortunately, the fall foliage forays are likely to end today since it's now overcast with rain moving in tonight and this weather pattern to be with us through Saturday and if it follows the usual pattern, that weather system will have enough wind associated with it to blow the leaves off the trees, but we shall see.
    For my latest photos, click here.

Fantastic Fall Foliage Foray 1

Monday, 10 October, 2011 - Yesterday, being an absolutely gorgeous autumn day with clear skies and quite warm temperatures (high of 82°F/28°C which set a record), Sandra and I decided to visit the scenic Land o' Lakes region southwest of here to see if there was any autumn color worth photographing and as can be seen in the photo, we did find some. I don't think the color has reached its peak yet, but we certainly found enough to make us happy.
    We got rather spoiled during our RV years, because we often traveled south in the fall about the time the foliage was changing so instead of a week or two of peak color it sometimes was a month or more. However, no longer having that luxury, this year I am determined to take advantage of the autumn color we do get and have been specifically looking for barns that have at least one colorful tree near them. Sadly, yesterday we found surprisingly few, the one shown above being the best of the few we did see. That said and as can be seen here, we saw a lot of tree-lined water that more than made up for the lack of autumn barns.
    In fact, I was just glad to have such beautiful weather. Too often in the past, the weather has not cooperated with fall foliage photography by giving me cloudy, cold, and wet conditions with high wind that blew the leaves off the trees, so I've thoroughly enjoyed this year's calm, clear, dry, and warm spell, which is supposed to continue through tomorrow, after which clouds and rain move in.
    For my latest photos, click here.

An Early Thanksgiving

Tuesday, 4 October, 2011 - American Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November, but anyone familiar with Canada knows Canadians celebrate their Thanksgiving on the second Monday in October, about a month and a half earlier. However this year Sandra and I celebrated it even earlier since we were visiting with Betty and Garth at their cottage near Lindsay, Ontario this past weekend, a week before Canadian Thanksgiving, and were fed an early Thanksgiving feast as can be seen in the photo on the left, with Garth carving the traditional turkey.
    We left for the cottage on Thursday, September 29, hoping to shoot some fall foliage photos along the way since the route goes through some very scenic country that normally is aglow with autumn color at this time of year, unfortunately though the weather didn't cooperate as it was overcast with scattered showers, one that turned into a torrential downpour for a few miles.
    We arrived safely after a four hour 165 mile (266 km) drive and spent most of the weekend just lounging around, although Betty and Sandra went shopping a couple of times and I went on a drive in search of fall foliage, but found little since it was still too early for that area.
    Except for the feast, the highlight of the weekend was probably encountering a most cooperative heron that was found near Garth's boathouse. The bird not only posed for us for one day but also the next. The weather cleared somewhat for Friday and Saturday, but clouds and rain returned for our drive back home on Sunday, so we never did have the opportunity for fall foliage photos that we'd hoped for.
    For my latest photos, click here.


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Updated Sunday, December 25, 2011

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