Autumn Leaves

We have several trees in our yard, as do a lot of people in the community in which we live.  Enough so that the city is nice enough to go around all the residential neighborhoods twice a year and collect the leaves and tree branches from pruning.  All the residents have to do is pile them all neatly out by the curb.  The city does this in two rounds, once for leaves, garden clippings, and grass clippings and again for the branches and such "brush".  It's a very nice and convenient service but it does create a bit of a contest every year; will the trees drop all their leaves in time for us to get them raked and piled at the curb in time for the pick up?  Some years we get help from various kids and grandkids, other years we end up doing it by ourselves. Because we have several trees in our yard, one of which holds a bazillion leaves, getting them all raked can be a bit of work. It's an annual ritual.  But the backyard is not as urgent because we just rake those leaves into the garden space.  We can do that at our convenience.  It's the front yard where we race to get what leaves fall done in time for the pick-up.

We have one tree that is the major contributor, it holds lots and lots of leaves.

It's also tall so its leaves fall all over the whole front yard.

But the nice thing about this year was that by the time the weather dried out enough that we could rake, that big tree had lost most of its leaves.  And the city still hadn't been by.  So we got out there and got busy.  Took us a couple of hours but we got all the front lawn done, all the leaves out to the curb.

This morning the city finally came by.  I had to wonder if they had moved the date back because of the wet weather we'd had.  The pick up date had been moved back twice, if they had stuck with the first date we'd have missed it.

As it was, we got it all done.  So now the leaves in front are gone and the front yard is ready for winter.  It's always nice to have it all done and the leaves gone.  I like that.

Fall Foliage

We usually try to get to somewhere around us, a day trip, each fall to take in the fall colors.  We're blessed to live in a place that has four distinct seasons, the prettiest of which is the fall with all the marvelous colors.  This year, however, we ended up going out of town just as the colors were starting to turn; we were unable to make a day trip to see colors.  But on our way back home through some mountains out west, we got to see some spectacular colors anyway.  

Our trips out west are usually to the Intermountain West.  Lots of mountain areas, covered with trees.

The trees are a different kind, since the elevation, up in the mountains, is 7,000 - 10,000 feet and higher. Quite a bit higher than the 1,000 feet above sea level of the Mid-West.

That means different kinds of trees, different colors.  But still very beautiful.

Throw in the vistas afforded by being up in thee mountains, and you get some very nice scenery.

The colors didn't seem to us to be quite as bright and vibrant as at home, but in their own way, still very beautiful.

The roads usually run near the rivers, which are winding their way down out of the mountains.

All in all, it was a very nice drive home while we were up in the mountains.

These photos were taken in northern Utah and western Wyoming.  We went, among other places, through Jackson, Wyoming and passed the Grand Teton Mountains.  Some very beautiful area.  We made it through some pretty high mountain passes and got to see some spectacular mountain views, made all the more pretty by the colorful fall leaves.  It was a very nice drive for the time we were up in the  mountains.  A nice day trip in any case.