Monday, October 17, 2011

Morning at the Aerie, October 17, 2011

Another 0.22 inches of rain fell overnight. It started sometime around 4 PM on Sunday and stopped during the dark hours after midnight. This morning dawned clear as a bell with not a cloud in the sky with crisp cool temperatures somewhere around 40 degrees. Only a faint odor of a wandering skunk marred the beginning of a glorious day.

The wind and the rain have knocked 90% of the fall colors off the hillsides beginning the transformation to the gray/brown of winter colors. Only the deep greens of the pines and hemlocks remain. The larch have yet to make their transformations to the golden stage that precede their loss of needles.

I felt compelled to build a fire in the fireplace yesterday morning. The winds that were howling through the area all day and night on Saturday, coupled with the overcast, drizzling and finally rainy skies had dropped the inside temperatures to the point where the furnace was kicking on but even that didn't knock the rawness out of the air. The fire brought the temperature up to 70 dry degrees and that did the trick.

Terry's sojourn to the sunny and hot climes of southern California has ended. Her flight home took her to New Jersey's Newark airport last night and she should be driving back to the Aerie this afternoon. We (the cats and I) will be here to welcome her home.

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