yellow berries

Just when I thought that the leaves had mostly fallen, and the trees had gone dormant, I start noticing all the berries!

Update: John tells me that these aren't berries at all, but crabapples! (Sure are small for the crabapples that I remember). There are lots of red and blue berries around, it seemed unusual to see yellow ones.

Winter is coming

John and I often muse over the how our eyes find the colors – browns and tans and oranges – so delightful. Perhaps being in Florida for so many years we got used to seeing the world in mostly dense greens and blues. Here the colors can be more pale and subtle. The most intense color now is the deep brown ground. I literally walk around flabberghasted. My eyes can't get enough.

Look at how different my walk along the Missouri River is now compared to last August:

They're calling for snow flurries tomorrow!

The last warm day

I think that this may be the last warm day. It is quite windy today, and it is supposed to rain tomorrow followed by a cold weekend.

Jubilee and I needed to get away from the television and computer, and so much election talk, so we headed over to our favorite walk along the Missouri River. Our days here in Missouri are numbered, and I realize how grateful I am for the opportunity to live and know this place.

Be the change you wish the world to be ...

Election day, 2008 - a glorious day for America. John and I both voted for Barack Obama with Florida absentee ballots a couple of weeks ago, but we are still excited by this day, which feels electrified with a quiet charge. What a beautiful, sunny day, filled with hope for our country and our world.

This is the neighborhood Obama headquarters:

Meanwhile, though the little trees on our streets look to have moved to the "falling" stage, there is still much vibrant color around...

Pickle Springs and Ste. Genevieve

On a tip from the St. Louis newspaper, we headed down to a place called Pickle Springs Natural Area – about 50 miles the other side of St. Louis – for a 2 mile autumn hike. This is supposedly the “peak” weekend for fall foliage.

The drive through Southeastern Missouri was glorious. The trees are all in various shades of yellow, orange and red. It is neat to see this change in nature and know that we are all a part of it as well.

There were lots of “Pro-life” signs around this area of the state, and a lot of political signs (mostly Obama, I think.)
[Like Bill Clinton, I am opposed to abortion but I think that it should be safe, legal and extremely rare. Teaching sacredness of life and sexuality goes a lot further to reduce abortions than sending women to back alleys or jails.]

The hike was just as the paper described it: “a gem”, “like a Japanese garden”. Rocks, giant ferns, moss (John has an obsession with moss), and gorgeous fall colors. Even though the hike was “easy”, there was enough up and down to make it feel more than just a walk through a park.

The Whispering Pine Trail is named for the shortleaf pines;
Pickle Springs flows into Pickle Creek, where Jubilee enjoyed a number of swims.
Afterwards we went into Ste. Genevieve, a charming and historic little town on the Mississippi River. Ste. Genevieve was originally a French settlement for fur traders. We didn’t get to the museum, so I’m a little lame on the history. A large Catholic Church dominated the area we saw, with “Vote Pro-Life” signs all around it. (I hope that they know that Pro-life means opposing to the Death Penalty as well as abortion.) Again, the Obama signs predominated.

There is a ferry just outside of Ste. Genevieve that takes you over the Mississippi River to Illinois – 4 minutes to cross the river.

More photos on Flickr.

Pumpkins

New Town Organic Farm, St. Charles Missouri

Autumn Geese

This is so utterly cool.

Every night, just at sunset (and not a minute before) the sound of cackling starts, and many flocks of geese begin hovering overhead. It seems that they are coming from the Missouri River, and heading north over to the Mississippi. They circle and even seem somewhat confused about where they are going. It must be that there are 2 rivers here, so close together. Eventually though, they all go north to the Mississippi.