Little green apples

The first yellowed maple leaf fell on the garden this afternoon, signalling the beginning of the end of our summer. And under the apple tree at Centennial Park, the ground is covered with small, wormy apples, half green, half red.

I bit into one. Too hard to chew, and sour, to boot.

While I was on the beach

... taking photos of floating maple leaves, Laurie looked at our maples at home.

Blogging may be light for a couple of days, while I work on a long-planned, and always postponed post.

(There! Now I've committed myself to finishing, I'll actually get it done.)

Light from a quarter way up the sky

This time of year, the sun hangs low in the sky*, creating deep shadows, highlighting patterns and shapes we would have missed otherwise.

Alleyway, Beach Grove, Tsawwassen

Last flowers in the garden, Beach Grove

Drooping sunflower

Maple leaves, with bug holes. Richmond

Wheel and tap, Westham Island Farms

Mushrooms, Reifel Island

Yellow snail on a shady rock. Richmond

Big-leafed exotic. Crescent Beach.

Yes, this is the sun, through dark clouds, with hints of sunset pink. About 4 PM., from Kwomais Point rocks.

If I look at that sun for a half-minute or so, I can see (or so it seems) the clouds moving. Try it yourself; do you see it, too? (You may need to view it full-size; left-click it for a new tab.)

*About 23 degrees above the horizon, at 3 PM these days.

Slug heaven

When the rains come, we always head down to Watershed Park; it's mushroom time!

And the slugs are partying. This one seems to be sleeping it off, though:


I don't remember seeing that striping on the foot before; very pretty.


And the head is such a warm golden colour! It matches the leaves.

Yes, we found mushrooms. Photos tomorrow.
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Better than rainbows

It was pouring rain, but we gave up waiting for it to stop; we went out looking for adventure, anyhow. Finn Slough, our destination. It had been too long since we were there.

And we were lucky; just as we arrived, the sun burned its way through the clouds over the river, and highlighted the dying leaves and grasses beneath them.

West end of Finn Slough, under a wet sky.

Tin, gold and steel grey.

White undersides of leaves, blowing in the wind.

More golden trees.

What else we saw, tomorrow. (I'm still sorting photos.)
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Fall back

October/November: time to shut things down for the winter.

Three weeks ago. A snail feasts on a dead rose. Three more flowers to go.

Two weeks ago. Wild silver dollar plant. The seed pods will rattle all winter.

One week ago. Big-leaf maple and "normal" maples caught, for now, on the evergreen ferns.

Yesterday. My young maple has about one day's worth of leaves still hanging on. Bedraggled lily-of-the-valley leaves shelter hungry young slugs.

But the towhees are back, and the juncos; they forage cheerfully among those fallen leaves. And a trio of house finches is still here.

Bathing in the rain.

And Daylight Saving Time is over, done with, finished; I just set my clock back. I get to sleep in! Woo-hoo!
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A bit of October colour

Just leaves, mostly maple:

Red and yellow


Deep purple


Browns


And a bit of green

And we're off to Chilliwack in the morning to celebrate the season with the family. Food, kids, cameras, more kids, talk, coffee, more food, more talk, more kids ... If I don't post tomorrow, you'll know we had too much of a good thing!
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The only constant is change.

Maple leaves

I've been reading commentary and watching clips, mostly on the blogs, of our concurrent debates, Canadian and American. Laurie watched ours on TV. There were some good moments; Elizabeth May surprised us with her knowledge and resolve. We won't be voting Green, but still, "Go, Elizabeth! And we hope to see more of you."

Harper was as arrogant and condescending as we expected, Palin not quite as inarticulate, ("you betcha!") but just as mendacious as ever. Half the time, I haven't known whether to laugh, moan, or rant.

But all thoughts of the bumblebees I was planning to write about have jumbled themselves up in my head with the buzz of the debates. I'll leave them for a bit, and report, briefly on what's happening in our neck of the woods.

• We've finally brought home a car. A 2003 Toyota Echo. It looks sturdy and reliable enough, and will be economical to drive, a prime consideration given that gas was almost $1.30 here yesterday. That's around $5.00 a US gallon. (I found it strange that in the Toyota dealership, all the new cars are big or bigger. The same thing applies across the street in the Nissan dealership. SUVs, even. I thought we were supposed to be burning less gas!)
  
• Now that we have wheels again, it's raining.
  
• The juncos are back for the winter. And a couple of towhees. Yay!
  
• The leaves are finally turning colour. I think fall just might have arrived.
  

Fiery reds and yellows in an oak.

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Walk around the block: Houses and Trees

... That's the block at the end of Kwomais Point, again.

And I'm limiting the photos to houses and trees, this time. All from a two-block length.

"Welcome, strangers! Feel free to poke around!"


"This is my care-takers' house. And I think that image reflected in the window must be the Guan-Yin. (Ignore the tall stump in the garden, there.)"


"My buddy, here, keeps an eye on that unruly mob at the end of the block. And watches eagles."

"But go on, make yourself at home. I think you'll catch some of us molting, though."


Molting?


He's right; it does look like it.


Up the street. Still green, but fading.


In among that "unruly mob".


Roots. Going somewhere.


An attempt at tidiness?


Back to the tame trees.


Nicely contained behind fences.


And reflected in glass.


But this one is out-shouting even the "mob".


Full circuit: across the street from the welcome committee, a less exotic, more self-effacing guardian shades his house.

Embarrassment of Riches

We got Laurie's photos from the other day's jaunt yesterday. Three whole rolls of film. And they are good ones; too many really good ones; it was almost impossible to narrow them down for posting here.

Tomorrow they go to London Drugs for scanning to the web. Maybe as early as tomorrow night (depending on LD's schedules), they will be ready to post.

In the meantime, I will tell you what happened, and post a few samples from my digital.


We were trying to find the shorter steps down to the Kwomais Point area that the deli owner had told us about. Following her tentative, maybe-laden instructions, we drove as far south as the roads would take us, around the curve onto a residential street that soon ends in a cul-de-sac, watching the seaward side closely for a hint of a trail. Not here, not here, not here, not here...

We backtracked. At the extreme point, the map showed a green space, maybe a park. We checked out both ends, and finally stopped where there seemed to be a gate of some kind.

No-one sits here any more.

It was a park; Kwomais Park, with a sign: Temporarily Closed to the Public. Chained and padlocked. We parked anyhow, and skirted it, toward the cliff face. No way down, unless you didn't mind being scooped up in pieces at the bottom.

As close as we got to the water.

Still, we were out of the car; we walked around the block for a look-see. And Laurie used up the afore-mentioned 3 rolls of film.

The street had a "feel" of stopped time. An aroma of leaf-mold, of damp wood. An end-of-the-year sleepiness. In the distance, we could hear sounds of traffic, but close at hand, just the murmuring of the trees, the rustle of their leaves underfoot.

Shady porch



A hint of yellow leaves


The makings of winter ground protection


Fading hydrangea



Red leaves far overhead


Red apple


Watch your feet!


Deep shade

When Laurie changed film for the third time, we headed back to the deli.* Where we were made much of by the owner, fed, watered, and given more oh-so-vague instructions as to the whereabouts of those steps. We'll try to find them next time.

For now, we were well satisfied.


*Salt Cellar Delicatessen, Ocean Park Mall, 128th St & 16th Ave, Surrey. Drop in sometime, if you're in the area; good food, great service, "interesting" directions.