Foliage is Winding Down

We've reached the point where our beautiful Fall foliage is coming to an end. The trees that turned earlier are losing or have lost their leaves. The trees that didn't turn earlier have started to turn. We're starting to see some of our neighbors' homes through the woods and I'm sure that we'll be seeing a lot more of them before we're through. It's interesting to see all of the things that have been hidden by the woods.

The weather has been interesting. Most nights are getting down to freezing but some are still in the 50's. Some days don't get out of the 30's or high 40's but some are still reaching the low 60's. The interesting thing is that the cooler days are clear, crisp and beautiful. The warmer days seem to be cloudy if not rainy. Our thermometer is one of those that shows the current temperature and the low and high points from the previous 24 hours. It's been interesting to observe that the 6am temperatures can be 10-15° higher than the low point (warm front moving in).

Halloween is coming this weekend. The towns in Massachusetts all announce when Halloween will be. In Oakham, it will be on the 31st from 5-7pm and will be followed by a parade from Town Center to the Fire Station at 7pm.

As remote as we would seem to be here, we are apparently at trick-or-treating central. Because the houses near Town Center are closer together than anywhere else in Oakham, all of the trick-or-treaters come here. The parade starting here has an impact as well. We've been told to not be surprised if we get over a hundred trick-or-treaters.

Because of this situation, the town takes up a candy collection from people who plan to bring their kids here. They then deliver the candy to the Town Center houses to distribute to the kids. We had never heard of anything like this but Kristen just read that our old community is doing the same thing and distributing the candy to houses on Pumpkin St. (our old street).

We finally replaced our broken camera so here are a few shots of what's happening with our foliage.

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View from our farmers porch. The (newly brown) open area behind the trailer is our leach field.

Looking back at the trees on the other side of our property.

View across the valley from our front porch. There's supposed to be a pond at the bottom. We haven't seen it but it's what attracts the mooses (moose?).

The same 89 year Oakham resident who told us about the pond mentioned that we are across the street from "The Great Wall of China". It has come into sight and, even in a community where field stone walls are everywhere you turn, this 5-6' wall is pretty spectacular. No pictures this time but a number of pieces of ancient, rusty farm equipment are also showing up as the leaves drop.

Our property from the corner of Coldbrook Rd. and Barre Rd. The leach field is through the trees. Trailer is just to the left.

Looking up the driveway (house is to the left).

-JC-