Luxury of the Fall
 

I am feeling most luxurious. Fall makes me feel that velvet, chenille, decorations (fall, then Halloween, then Thanksgiving) are in order, and all is pretty alright with the world. The summer depresses me greatly. I hate summer. It's barren. It's arid. It's a desert! Anyone else happy to see the temp. plunge into the 60's?? Global warming? Fuggitaboutit!!

i have to admit, it's nice to drive around H-town with the windows open and opening the windows throughout the house is nice too.....

Fall is by far the best season. Clear, crisp, invigorating.

I just got back from a weekend in Canada. The colors there were spectacular. reminds me of Maine.

October is normally the best weather, too. this year, at least in the NE, we're getting our November rains early. I love crisp fall weather, wool socks and birkenstocks, torn jeans, football games, and some nice clam chowdah!

Fall is my favorite season. Low humidity. Cool weather. Favorite holiday (Thanksgiving). Favorite time to take a bike ride too - even if you have to wear gloves.

Whoopeedo. I got a $387.56 fuel oil delivery yesterday. :eyebrow:

Fall just means I get to look forward to aching hands and knees. Mother Nature is taunting me...

There's no Fall here!

But there is a lot of Air-con ;)

So, you bought what, quarter of a tank or so, just topping off from last year?

Is this fuel oil stuff like propane? I've had propane, but never "fuel oil".

I almost have my yard cleaned up from Katrina. Soon what leaves that are left will fall.
Then I can start over :smack: Oh yes and firewood to be cut, split, & stacked. Crap

I like fall until daylight savings ends around the end of the month. Unlike some of the rest of you, I am now leaving my windows shut more often than open. Fall is a favorite time of year, though. In the Southwest, the air takes on a mysterious incadescent quality to it. The days are often still warm, but the nights are getting cold. The mountains here have just finished their annual spectacular display of Aspens and the high mountains outside my front windows are covered with the first sprinkle of snow. Pretty soon, Pikes Peak will assume its snow whitle mantle that won't come off until sometime around next April. Here's a couple of Aspen shots from my trip a couple of weeks back:

man, is there a freakin green with envy smilie?!

Beauty

You like? Here's a couple more. The first is a shot from the Gondola that goes from Telluride to Mountain Village. You can see Telluride way below in the right of the picture. That Gondola ride is spectacular! The second is a shot of the mountains going over Lizard Head Pass:

159 gallons.... yes, topping off.
It's diesel fuel with a blue dye added to tag it as home heating oil and highway taxes have not been paid on it. You can run a diesel powered vehicle on it fine, but getting caught with "blue" in the tank of your truck will probably earn you a trip the Guantanamo. :eek:

Back on topic; Fall fell. That means the frost is, or soon will be, on the pumpkin.
Much of western Canada and the northern Rocky Mountain states got snow before the first killing frost.

Marichiko - wow!

But much as I can appreciate the beauty of your pics, I wouldn't want to be away from England at this time of year. I spent an Autumn in France one year and was horribly homesick.

Autumn is definitely my favourite season. I love the colours, the smells, the quality of the air, I even love the slight feeling of melancholy I get (which might just be bonfire smoke catching in my throat). Summer is usually too hot, too bright & too brash for me. Give me misty mornings, grass covered in frost and soft afternoon sunlight every day.....

I'll see if I can get some pics - they'll be laughably understated compared to Marichiko's spectacular scenery pf course!

Anyone headed for New England leaf peeping, I've been told the leaves are running 10 to 14 days behind schedule.
The tremendous rain storms in the past week may raise hell with that also. :(

that is if Bush doesn't decide to keep the time like it is to "save energy"........

Sundae Girl, I couldn't agree with you more about summer. I really do hate it and get very depressed July/August. This summer has seemed to go on forever with hot weather (like, in the 90's and humid) keeping us company until just last week! :eek:

PLEASE post whatever pics you've got! We all really love to see them!

And, Mari, those are some beautiful shots! Wow!

Thanks, Bri! I love those places. Camped on the side of darn near every mountain and driven every back road. You can see why I can't wait to get back home! Just a few more months and I'll be back there for good!

Can't resist two more pics and then I'll stop - I promise.

The first is looking directly down thru the cables at the town of Telluride just as the Gondola takes off, and the second is more of Lizard Head Pass, looking back toward the mountains to the West.

What, you didn't ride the train? Or do I have the wrong town?

Durango maybe, buster?

Jinx knows her 4-Corners! Yep, there's an old time steam locomotive that will take folks from Durango to Silverton for an exorbitant fee. There is also another steam locomotive which runs thru some specatacular scenary between Antonito, Colorado and Chama, New Mexico (also for an exorbitant fee). Up Telluride way, your choices are car, on foot, cross country ski's in winter months, or by the gondola between Telluride and the ski resort of Mountain Village. The gondola has the side benefit of being completely free of charge and runs constantly from like 6:00am to midnight (don't quote me, it may be in operation even more than that). The cars are enclosed in plexi-glass and in the cold months, friendly workers will even hand you a blanket to take along for your ride if you want. There are special cars reserved for people with their pets in case you want to take Fido along to view the scenary.

In many ways Telluride is a pretty cool town. It has a "free box" just off its main street where the wealthy folks who stay in the condos in Mountain View can drop off unwanted items for the rest of us. I've made some incredible finds there - like 100 brand new stuffed animals that I snapped up one Christmas and donated to the kids whose folks come to pick up food boxes in the desperate little town of Nucla, 60 miles away. Its got an incredible public library which offers an amazing variety of stuff for no charge and, of course, it has the summer music festivals which I have learned how to attend for absolutely free. Have heard many of my fav musicians and groups there.

On the downside, Telluride has winter. I don't like winter and I'm not a down hill skier type - cross country works fine for me and that I can do anywhere there's snow which Telluride gets in ridiculous excess (I draw the line after a foot or so). It also takes the income of a minor member of the Saudi royal family to rent or buy housing there. And it doesn't have a train. ;)

I love the Fall as well. Warm snuggly clothes that help to hide my spare tire, stews and other comfort foods to make said tire a little more inflated. It makes you want to decorate your house (it helps distract from the tire). Besides, I don't know anybody but my mom that does summer decorations. I love leaving my bedroom window open and having the fresh chilly air to breathe in while I am snuggled up with my husband in bed.......

awww.... iddnt that sweet?

We just got our first snow on top of the farthest up/ back mountains. I will try to post some pictures later.

Man oh man...I left my favorite cozy pair of pajamas at the rental house I was staying at for Telluride Jazz Fest. I wondered later if they had ended up in the Free Box, but they may not have been nice enough. :o

Please explain. I'm itching for standard time so I have a little daylight in the morning instead of dark on both ends of my day.

there are rumors that GW will keep the time at daylight savings year round.... I'll have to do some research.
Anyone hip?

Someone at work said there was talk of going back to standard earlier in the month...

I tend to be a night owl. I go to sleep around midnight or later and get up around 8:00am, so even with daylight savings, its already light out when I get up. The ending of daylight savings means for ME, one less hour of light in my own day. I am one of those people who are strongly effected by the short days of winter and all that dark, so the end of daylight savings always impacts my mood.

I can see how a lark type or someone who needs to get up early might welcome the switch, though. ;)

from:http://webexhibits.org/daylightsaving/b.html :coffee:

I said they wouldn't be as spectacular - you give me mountains & I give you a car park!

But this is the entrance to the park at the bottom of my road, and the colours do warm me.

And this is my walk in to work (when I'm not on the bus).

I'll take another one once the leaves have really started to turn. Its very pretty when you're there because you can see over half a mile down the tree lined walk. Also there are squirrels everywhere.....

More! More!! :)

We showed you ours, now you show us YOURS! ;)

OK. Here's mine. This was a week ago, about 2.5 hours north of Toronto. I'm the guy in the front, wearing a tuxedo.

http://static.flickr.com/30/53482121_2ec286397f.jpg

Wonderful Fall pics, all! Mari, your shots illustrate "purple mountains majesty" very nicely. Sundae, post more pics whenever you have the chance. I'll probably never get to England, and I love looking at even the things which probably seem humdrum and mundane to you.

Glatt...why?

damn, Els....... he's a professor!

heehee......

It was a wedding. Both the bride and groom arrived at the wedding site by canoe. One of the guests took the picture. It was a nice half mile paddle. You should have seen the expression on the local fishermen's faces when the bride went by in her canoe.

Paddling a canoe in a monkey suit is about how you would imagine it to be.

For some reason I have this mental image of a Native American Princess and Warrior being paddled to their nuptials in full garb.

Cool.

Hey, I wonder if Falling Rock will make it? :D

Obscure joke. See the story in the humor thread.

I found these pictures on Wunderground of fall in the North East.
The first one is the Delaware Water Gap, where the Delaware River cuts between PA and NJ in Northeast PA.
The second is the village of Mt Bethel, PA. :)

Nice, Bruce! I guess you don't have to visit the Rockies to see beautiful things! ;)

I've been to the Rockies in September and they are indeed beautiful. Anywhere the leaves change color adds a special warmth to the terain. :)

I was afraid the rain would mess up our leaves in NEPA but it is spectacular right now. Sunday should be nice, get out of the house people.

All these pics are awesome to me. Our Fall foliage is beautiful also. Only Problem is that the land is so flat that you can't get a view without a pilot unless you go to the extreme northern areas.

I envy you folks in the hilly/mountainous regions. Unless you are looking down a highway or across a huge piece of farmland the average visability here I guess is maybe 50-100 yards.

More pics, please?

The top end of Victoria Park.

Sorry - no mountains again....

I got up to the Sawtooth range in the arrowhead off of Lake Superior- the Superior hiking trail- a few weeks back. It was peak. Golden and orange forest swallowed us up. Breathtakingly beautiful. I took pics, but couldnt capture it. It snowed a bit the day after we left.

I know what you mean. Sometimes I wish I had one of thse 360 degree panoramic cameras to get the feeling of being enveloped. :)

There was this amazing quality of the light, too. Overcast and glowy. Damp blackened bark, no sharp shadows, it was diffused. And when you walked in to the forest, you just stood in awe, glowing maples and dogwood as far as you could see.

The weather here in KC has been stupendous for the past couple of weeks. We've had a couple of light frosts, crisp chill mornings and evenings, with absolutely *perfect* afternoons...cloudless, blue, blue sky, light breezes. The absolute best of Fall weather that one can imagine.

I've taken the camera out a couple of times, and then promptly forgotten to shoot any pics. I shot a single majestic maple on the way to work the other day, but I keep missing the stretches of beautiful color. I'm too busy grooving on the Fall vibe, man.

Ok--just for something different on a friday: it's damn chilly here in the Valley, but some puny sun is trying to break through so perhaps the day can still redeem itself. My energy bills have tripled so it's freezing in my house as well. This feels like a curl up and nap day...then again, just about every day feels like that lately. (imagine yawn smiley *here*)

The weather in DC has been very nice, up until this cold front blew through a couple days ago. This morning, on my walk to the metro, it was 27 degrees. Them there are winter temperatures. I'm not quite mentally prepared for winter yet. Oh well. Guess I have no choice.

It is totally goddamned cold in Philadelphia. They called a Code Blue for the Homeless last night. Last week it was 70°F.

We skipped fall this year.

Yeah, it was September on Wednesday, October yesterday, and today it's November.

I have this and it works. There is a $500 version too, but the difference is not worth the $470, for me. Download trial version available, and *super* easy to use. It takes as its input regular pictures you've taken in sequence, as you simulate a panoramic picture, even up to 360 deg. You know, the kind you take when you hold the camera up, snap, rotate your body some amount, overlapping the frame a little, snap, rotate, repeat, etc. It takes that sequence of pictures and "stitches" them together automagically. Works slick. Check it out.

My camera will do that (in conjunction with the supplied software) if I use the supplied memory card. What i was thinking of is the ones that take 360 degrees horizontally and vertically. :)

Ahh, this is what you're looking for then. We used these when I worked for the cruise line, as part of the virtual tours onboard ship, and for our hotel properties. They work really slick.

But you're gonna have to tack on a couple/three zeros onto the invoice, bub.

Do A Google for auto stitch. Some free ones there.