OCTOBER AT LAST!
But it's famous bright blue weather? Not so much. The month came in looking like this, and although we've had gorgeous dramatic skies, so far not much of the blue.
    Yes, even on October 2, when this was taken, that hardy crepe myrtle at the northwest corner of the store was still putting out the occasional bloom.
     We're nearly halfway into the month now. It has been a busy month. A funeral in Jasper early in the month. The car that crashed into the side of the store on Saturday the 4th and the repair thereof. My last remaining cat in serious decline: death and funeral took place on Friday the 10th, and the next couple of days were busy with clearing cat stuff off the front porch, where Sibling and her sister Catalina had lived most of their lives, and next week I begin (with help) the restoration of that to livable condition again.
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One more shot, probably the last of the year, of that last hardy crepe myrtle. Note how the ones along the front fence show no sign of lingering bloom and in fact are already beginning to lose their leaves.
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The gingko in the back yard continues its slow fading of the green, ever so slightly moving toward the vibrant yellow that you'll see later on.
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A little over a week later, the 10th, even more progress in the direction of yellow.  Down in the woods some of the trees are starting to drop their leaves. The tulip poplar leaves always turn brown and fall off first, sometimes as early as midsummer if moisture has been lacking. We've had more rain this year.

Another cloudy day. A bit of blue up there, but not much. This goldenrod beside the west fence is the last one to do much in the way of blooming.
And across the driveway from that is this one right on the side of the county road. (One of these days I must fix the address on my mailbox.)
One last remnant of spring and summer: one stray honeysuckle bloom on the back fence.
But there are lots of buds on my camellia, a promise of what is to come (if we are lucky) in late fall and winter.

October 14. Another day of clouds. Storms threatened last evening, but here in Sawyerville we were lucky. Maybe an inch and a half of rain, all told, and when the cold front came rushing through about 9 p.m. there was a brief period of thunder and lightning but not much of the threatened wind. Other parts of the state, particularly the greater Birmingham area, were not so lucky.
The goldenrod by the west fence is still holding on, but the patch in my wild flower area down the hill from the office is way past its prime.
The dry brown seedpods dangling from the redbud make rustling noises when the wind blows. Note how the leaves have fallen from the tulip poplar down in the woods.
And just today I have discovered these small daisy-like blooms here and there in the yard. I don't know what they are called, but I like them. A wildflower, they look like something that should have bloomed in the spring:

October 15.

At last, the bright blue sky. I thought that might happen a day or so after the recent cold front passed through.

And I discovered that my pink sasanqua on the east side of the store had started to bloom. That's a seriously good sign of the oncoming of fall, even winter. Sometimes it is called the Christmas or Yuletide camellia, for it is a member of that family and does bloom around Christmas.


The white one is not blooming yet, but there appear to be lots of buds.
October 16. A busy day already, and it's not quite noon. Up 4:45, 2 cups of coffee and oatmeal with trimmings (walnuts, yogurt, blueberries, strawberry jam), and up to Havana Junction 16 miles north to pick up a friend to take him through the Oakmulgee and Talladega National Forests to Montevallo, where he picked up his new car. Home by 10, then over to Eutaw to have oil changed in car (nearly a thousand miles overdue, but I've been busy). On the way home stopped by Roebuck Landing for lunch of barbecue pork, baked beans, and French fries (I'd asked for coleslaw but when I saw how good the potatoes looked I decided not to make a fuss). Got home and took these few pictures and settled down at the computer before noon.

Although I had posted a shot of the dried seed pods dangling from the redbud somewhere above, I decided I really should show them from a closer perspective.

The goldenrod by the west fence (left) and the county road (right) are still quite showy. These are pretty much my last ones, although in places the roadsides are still thronged with the yellow blooms.

Somewhat to my amazement, the four-o'clocks are still producing a few blooms, not anything like the number at their peak, but those few that do bloom are pretty. If you'll cast you mind back, we started seeing these in early June.

Each bloom produces at least one seed, sometimes several, and what with the seeds that fall along with the tubers that will remain alive in the ground over the winter, I'm likely to have lots of these next summer.
October 18.

More bright blue skies, with a smear of white to set it off. The 10-day forecast promises a lot more of this, with daytime temperatures mostly in the 70s and nights dropping into the 40s.






I think I have come to the end of the spider lilies in bloom. The one below seems to be the last one up and running.

The nandina berries are a lovely golden brown, well-suited for fall, I think. They'll be red by Christmas.




According to this fun fall foliage map (click on dates to see predictions) looks like I'll be seeing the peak of the fall color mid-November:
http://smokymountains.com/fall-foliage-map/
The next day. A sunny Sunday afternoon. Leaves on the trees remain startlingly green. Not that they would have assumed fall colors in the normal scheme of things, but most years they would have been dry and brown for lack of rain.

A pleasant, quiet day. Have heard only from one cousin, who called to see if it were convenient for her to drop by and pick up something from the store. It was.

Nice to have another day of aloneness and rest before work resumes on the front porch tomorrow.
I do like the big oak limb reaching westward into the back yard, but I know a storm will bring it down one of these days.
Other than a bit of late-blooming ageratum and the last dregs of spider lily, this small white wildflower is the only thing presently blooming in the yard.

The back yard remains green, with the continuing slow fading of the gingko on the way to the spectacular yellow yet to come.
Friday. Halloween. A good excuse to bring October to a close. Not a good month, really, what with the car crashing into the side of the store early on and the death of Sibling in the middle and finding out just yesterday that it will be another week before I can get the screen wire for the front porch. Patience, Jonathan! Maybe those were the tricks, and now I'll just be getting treats. Today for the first time I tested the big gas heater in the living room (it works!) and even got out the electric blanket for my bed. Seriously chilly weather will be coming in this weekend, and tomorrow night we expect a light freeze.

Fall colors are definitely beginning to arrive in Sawyerville. The redbuds have turned yellow. Not so pretty close up, but at a distance they look nice.


More crepe myrtles! This time with their fall colors, which are lovely, I think.
Looking east from the patio you can see that the flowering crabapple has pretty much lost its leaves, and in the back yard the gingko continues its parade from summer green to fall yellow.

Down in the woods the trees have fewer leaves than a month back.

Although most of the week has been sunny, on Tuesday morning we did have a heavy fog that lasted for several hours.
I suspect that fog and moisture had something to do with what's below, which are springing up all over the back yard. And since in color and grotesque shape they somehow suggest Halloween, they provide a good place to take my leave of you until sometime in November.