Images of Autumn in Kentucky

On the 10th of October we drove to Falmouth, Kentucky, where J. bought a vintage John Deere crawler.

Our route took us through an area of wealthy bluegrass landowners--horse people with legendary

 thorough-bred stables.

The horse properties are surrounded with miles of fencing--often double-fenced as in this view of stone wall backed by plank fencing.

Some of the homes are lovely old mansions, meticulously kept; others are modern monstrosities with oddly jutting gables, crenelated bits sprouting from a roofline, gothic windows, lacking in any beauty of line or symmetry.

It has been even drier in the northern part of the state than here.

Many lawns were brown and crisp, leaves had colored and fallen early.

At home the barn kittens thrive. Willis presents a hazard underfoot, appearing as soon as I step outside the house in the morning.

He wanted praise for this mouse, which in true cat fashion he tossed and batted.

{It was very dead by the time it was displayed for my admiration.}

The window above the kitchen sink looks directly into this maple tree.

When the sun shone through the colored leaves the effect was dazzling.

The glory of the colored leaves lasted only a few days.

Wind has stripped the leaves from the tree and they lie curled and dry, scattered over the back lawn.

Willis seems to enjoy appearing at the dining area sliding door.

Charlie's reaction is dramatic--he hisses and puffs, flattens his ears.

Willis is quite undaunted.

No one has been able to identify this shrub for me.

Its spring flowers were tiny and insignificant.

As the leaves have turned to this bright scarlet I've concluded that the shrub must be valued mainly for its fall color.

Rose--Double Red Knock-Out.

This is a popular landscape rose in this area.

With the cooler weather roses are reviving for late bloom.

I think these may need to be moved to a spot that gets sun for more of the day.

I planted them along the east-facing wall of the old garage.

They were in competition with the sunflowers for much of the summer.

These Michaelmas daisies have come into bloom in the perennial border as the several earlier varieties have faded.

Broccoli and cabbage planted at the end of August are thriving.

I gave them one powdering of sevin dust and there has been no damage from cabbage "loopers."

I look at this spill of leaves and remember raking huge piles of maple leaves as a child.

We heaped them into high drifts, ran and jumped into them--endlessly. I  recall reclining in maple leaves up to my neck, dreaming the hours away, looking up at a bright October sky seen through the mesh of dark bare branches.

Nandina berries.

The nandina appears to have appreciated the severe pruning I administered in the late spring.

The pods [or cones?] on the magnolia tree.

A last glistening blossom graced the top of the tree this week.

That nameless yellow flower in what remains of a hedgerow.

The dried stems of blue vervain.

We've not identified the few straggly trees which were left when the hedgerow was bulldozed last year.

Sycamore?

Seedheads of that yellow mystery flower.

The flower looks like the illustration for tickseed in my wildflower book, but the seeds don't seem as barbed.

Evening primrose growing along the ditch behind the barn

A harvest of kale being inspected by Teasel who announced that it smells odd.

We decided that we should have cut it when the leaves were smaller.

White snakeroot [?]

We are grateful for the mild autumn after the seemingly interminable heat of July and August.

Mornings and evenings are cool, warmed indoors by a blaze in the fireplace.

Afternoons are mellow, muted, too quickly chased into twilight as the sun slinks off behind the woods which deliniate our western boundary.