Fall Has Arrived!

I know it’s nearly October, but fall finally arrived to the Northwoods yesterday. Autumn’s arrival is V-E-R-Y late this year. Extremely unusual. Matter of fact, I heard someone mention over the weekend that this has been the warmest northeastern Minnesota since something like 1918, and I believe it!

(Update: it's actually been the warmest September in recorded history!!)

Peak color for the maples was probably this past weekend or will be sometime this week. However, if the leaves’ stems were even the slightest bit weak, the brilliant colors will be GONE after last night. We had such terrific winds during the night (and still are this morning) that I reminded Tom to throw a chainsaw into the car this morning for his 60 mile drive to work. (Anticipating trees down along the route.)

In comparison with the maples, though, the birch are just turning yellow . . . and the poplars are still solidly green! Weird.

With the much-needed rain that the gusting winds brought yesterday, so too did they bring a drop in temperature. As Tom said last night, a somber tone in his voice, “I think the weather has changed.” Meaning, it’s finally gonna be chilly. Until now, we haven’t even been CLOSE to firing up the Central Boiler wood furnace yet . . . and that means we still haven’t had any heat in the house! And at only 2 or 3 days from October? Insane! But, if this weather persists, as we anticipate it to (you know when you can just “tell”?), we’ll be switching over to our “winter mode” soon. As it is, I have a cracklin’ fire started here in the sunroom this morning – the first morning I’ve actually NEEDED it vs. just wanting to take the chill off for a short time before letting the coals burn out. Today, I think I’ll keep it goin’!

Today is the 4^th birthday of a very special little peanut: the baby who first started my nannying “career”. This summer has not allowed much visiting, and so I hadn’t seen her in an age (probably since June). But, this weekend was the final summer season hurrah at the local folk school where the peanut’s dad is the executive director (and Tom is on the executive board), and so I got to see her long enough to give her a BIG hug . . . but that was about it since she was headed home for her afternoon nap. She still looks the same, but she’s getting TALL . . . and with her olive-complexion (dunno WHERE she got that?!) coupled with her mama’s beauty, it’s easy to see the gorgeous woman she’s going to become.

Her birthday present is a very fun book called ‘The Perfect Nest’ by Minnesota author Catherine Friend, and I was lucky enough to get it autographed to the peanut directly. I hope that I can get it to her on Friday when I’ll be in town.

There’s no birthday party to attend this year: her mama told me that in response to her parents’ query of “what do you want to do to celebrate your birthday this year?”, the birthday girl answered (imagine this in a tiny little sing-song voice), “I want to plant trees to help the animals.” Awwwww!! (She’s grown up in the aftermath of a fairly big forest fire in which many friends lost their homes, and annual tree planting celebrations have been a part of life up here ever since.)

Okay, it's hours later now since I wrote this . . . but I couldn't get satellite reception for the Internet earlier. I have fires snap-crackling in both ends of the house now (sunroom & kitchen), and when I did chores this morning my fingers were actually FREEZING inside my rubberized gloves, and you could see my breath whirling around me. It's official, I think: the season has CHANGED!