Merri Travels

Fall

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Saturday November 1 2008

Well, the colors haven't been brilliant this year, and we almost went from green leaves straight to brown leaves, but there's an abbreviated little surge of yellow and orange flames on the cottonwoods along the creeks here. The quail bush, rather disappointingly, didn't turn its deep red, but some of the trees are trying their best to make up for it.

The trees in the yard barely turned colors before dropping their leaves - I've really enough leaves already to rake into a big pile and jump into them from the roof... if I were so inclined to rake them all. It's more fun to kick them in the air as you walk through them, or to listen to them crunch beneath your feet. And the horses love to eat the ones that fall on their side of the fence.

But even without the brilliant colors, it's still my favorite time of year: golden sunlight, cool and crisp air, ice in the troughs some mornings, layered riding clothes in the afternoons, leaves falling in a breeze like big rain drops, soft and wooly horse coats that are oven-baked warm when you bury your fingers and face in them.