It's October 20th and here in Minnesota we are getting our first significant snow of the season (6 inches plus). Luckily, I cleared the mountains of leaves from my yard this past weekend.  Might just go out for a ski tonight while it's still around. Although I love the stuff, most Minnesotans hate it and are now already looking forward to Spring (June 2021).

Brrr. Dreading that already. 


It'll be a little while yet before snowfall blankets these pastures, but I've seen frost in the mornings on the way out. I snapped this picture on a walk this past weekend.

Right now we are down to a chilly 78 degrees.

hehehehe

Here's the current view, do do do, lookin' out my back window

Bill, tgo

Nice Bill!  We have a lot of deer here on Galiano, but this summer there was a fairly drastic die-off due to a deer-specific virus. I'm missing them these days - many fewer than there were a few months ago. 

Just a dash of red in this autumn scenery. Nothing much, but it'll do.

Adriaan, is that walking trail by chance a de-commissioned railroad bed? The part of the world I live in is crisscrossed with century-old rails that don't lead to anything anymore... many of them are now recreational bike/hike trails.

Here's a little glimpse of Autumn from my daily rush. I pass this window 6 times a day, and seldom have time to stop. It's on the 2nd floor of a building slated to be demo'd later this year. Probably the last time that red maple will show those colors.   

Greg, that's just magnificent.

My location is the coastal area just south of the big BP refinery in Rotterdam Europoort. Roughly this location
https://maps.app.goo.gl/TKj7X2RMz45rBQFRA

Quote from: adriaan on October 22, 2020, 12:29:05 PM
Greg, that's just magnificent.

My location is the coastal area just south of the big BP refinery in Rotterdam Europoort. Roughly this location
https://maps.app.goo.gl/TKj7X2RMz45rBQFRA

Very Cool!  In my days going to sea, we docked at the Maersk Terminal and rode our bicycles to Oostvoorne to shop....and... well just ride on the Excellent Bicycle roads for exercise.  If we had time...also into Brielle for a nice dinner.

No scenery but allow my words to paint a picture... 

We have several de-commissioned railroad tracks near us that have been converted to paths.  They are rather pleasant, there is a stretch on one of them where we used to come across morel mushrooms,  times like that it is convenient to have dogs and a "poop" bag.   When you find mushrooms you can harvest incognito, as if you were picking up doo-doo.

A few years back that spot was discovered as there were blatant shroomers walking the trail checking underbrush.  Nothing stealth about their approach and as you can guess the area was rapidly over harvested.  It is ok as we found morels in another location (I'm not telling).

Paul (who prescribes to leaving at least 15% of the fungi in place as well as a few gentle whaps against a tree/ ground to spread some spores before bagging - ideally we use a mesh cloth bag that will disperse spores as we wander)

Quote from: garyhead on October 22, 2020, 05:13:03 PM

Quote from: adriaan on October 22, 2020, 12:29:05 PM
My location is the coastal area just south of the big BP refinery in Rotterdam Europoort. Roughly this location
https://maps.app.goo.gl/TKj7X2RMz45rBQFRA

Very Cool!  In my days going to sea, we docked at the Maersk Terminal and rode our bicycles to Oostvoorne to shop....and... well just ride on the Excellent Bicycle roads for exercise.  If we had time...also into Brielle for a nice dinner.

Small world! Happy to jog some good memories there.


Just to be clear, this wasn't a de-comissioned railway, but a wheelchair-friendly walking trail through what counts as a nature reserve in our overcrowded landscape.

It just looked very similar. I haven't walked any of the Rail Trails here lately, but I'll snap a picture next time. You'll see what I mean. 

Here's a couple from this morning. In addition to my regular duties, I am the Operator of a small Water Treatment Plant in the rural community of Boones Mill, Virginia about 30 minutes South of Roanoke. The Plant is set on the Southwestern face of Cahas Mountain in Franklin County, and treats about 100,000 gallons/day that flows from a Spring. This is the view driving in. In the second picture, you can see the Water Plant and Clearwell (Storage Tank) up the road, ahead another 1/4 mile or so.

It was a really nice morning in Boones Mill, Virginia.

Beautiful foliage pics, I like the snow too! 

A little further up the coast - you can just about spot the Europoort outline on the horizon. Beach clubs boarded up for winter.

Looks chilly, settle in winter is coming, and winter along a coast is great! 

Late afternoon jazz...