Fantastic Autumn

 Our remarkable weather is just hanging on! The forecast for the next week is more of the same. Our nights are pretty cold but it's nice sleeping temperature isn't it?

Our chimney got cleaned yesterday. It was the dirtiest I think it's ever been! Two buckets of black crystal stuff got hauled out!!!! I vacuumed the inside of the woodstove. It too was pretty dirty. I had to pull all of the filters out of the machine and order more.

My yard didn't get a nip of frost last night but the neighbour across said he did. Tonight we have the beautiful harvest moon shining in the east facing windows. It is so big and bright!

 "Big Red", the Acer Rubrum beside the shed, is starting to shed her leaves. She is always the first to don her fancy dress, but it doesn't last long. The Acer Sucrum, the sugar maples, are nice and orange now. The younger ones are yellow. Soon enough the oaks will pull out their deep burgundy colors. They are the last to turn.

M. Got the little red suv fixed this afternoon. It was a simple repair, but he didn't have the proper tool in his arsenal. Our area has recently brought in a  big penalty for loud vehicles. He was really feeling anxious about having to drive right on to the main street in the town to get to the garage! I talked to our elderly neighbour this afternoon and made a date to go on tour on Saturday.

My sore leg has greatly improved by taking it easy and having a slow walk every evening. Sadly my left knee is how feeling like bone on bone. When the right one started to get bad I had cortisone shots every three months for a year. For starters, I don't have a family doctor to get the process started, nor is there a clinic around here doing the shots. It took three years on the wait list to get the right knee replaced but I'm not holding out much hope for this left one.

I love September and October. Wouldn't it be nice if this weather held until the end of the month?

Summer hangs on!

 We went for a nice ride on the ATV this afternoon.  I low the smell of the maples. We had planned to go look at the lake across the highway but there is now a BIG No Trespassing sign on the trail.

We got another wagon load of wood in the shed today. Tomorrow morning we will do another. My leg is not feeling too bad the last couple of days so I'm trying to do more.

The little red SUV goes into the shop tomorrow afternoon. I hope they can fix it right there and right then. The man has booked a couple of service calls for supper hour.

Apparently it's going to be pretty cold tonight. I've covered the zucs and the herbs. I hope the dill survives. It is just about to set seed.

Vehicles can drive us bananas

 On Friday we had the car's undercarriage treated for winter. CHECK ONE

Today she is having her winter oil change CHECK TWO

Snow tires still need to be installed, but that won't happen for another month or more. Snow tires don't stand up that well on hot pavement apparently.

What I didn't mention in yesterday's post: OUR EXHAUST FELL OFF about 10km. from home! We had been driving on some pretty rough country roads yesterday. Have you ever driven on a washboard road? It can loosen your darn teeth!!!! And vibrate parts of your vehicle off.

Enough of the stress, look at some pretty pictures instead

The dill is hanging on

Funny crows checking out the camera

Virginia creeper on the west side

More of it on the south side

Pretty!

and Prettier

The maple behind the shed is really looking nice

I got the trellis all cleaned and stacked, in wait for next spring. The old bean stalks and tomato plants were picked up and tossed behind the fence. That's the "other" compost pit.

This evening I'm knitting a sock with alpaca yarn and watching WOMEN TALKING. A powerful film!

Our Outing today

 The Snake River dumps into the Ottawa River. This is one of the ponds along the way.

The Spooky tree near Eganville/Douglas

Harvest is well under way

The Mennonite market on Rice Line. We stopped for squash and maple syrup

The VERY busy Mennonite market at Douglas. We bought a LOT of apples and more maple syrup.

colors of my world

 

Progression of the big maple tree beside the shed.

We are getting the car ready for winter. We sat in a line for a good hour to get the undercoating done. 

From there it was off to the weekly grocery shop. I've been keeping track of food expenses for over a year. Already this month we are DOUBLE last year. September isn't over yet! I hope we don't need to shop anymore this month!

I just heard an abandoned air strip not far from us has been set afire. Sure hope they get that out quickly. It's a huge acreage of scrubby brush. Some punks playing with fire no doubt.

Road trip!

 My knitterly pal Paula and I went to Almonte, Ontario for Fiber Fest 23. It was great to see so much yarn, fleece, fabric and notions. I bought three beautiful skeins of gorgeoness to knit cowls.

This part sure was a highlight though.

This is the lovely Noreen Young and her  famous friends. Her wonderful puppets were major players in Canadian children's programs for years. That is Little Gloria sitting on my shoulder. I loved it! Seeing the reaction of some of the younger adults around us was priceless. One young mother in particular got all teary and breathless. Noreen and Gloria engaged her young child while the mum got herself back together.

It was a lovely day. The sun was shining and there was a nice breeze.

An ATV adventure: Part One

 We took a ride on the ATV/Quad along the old rail trail today. It's a beautiful trail. Nicely shaded so not to hot. They are doing seasonal maintenance on the "B" Trail as it is called in our area. It was pretty washboarded at the entry lot up our road, but it was nice further on.

The early morning fog soon burns off in the heat

Indian River Rapids

Steam trains, then modern trains used to rumble across this bridge into Algonquin Park. This bridge is called Indian Crossing. It's about five miles from the Algonquin park boundary. I have to do some research about the age of the line and why it went into the park. We could hardly wrap our heads around the work that went into these old rail lines. 

Who is that fellow looking at the river a LONGGG way down.

Many of the old rail lines have been torn up in Canada and the US, and turned into recreational trails. In the winter this trail is very popular with snowmobiles.  It was pretty quiet today.

The lovely Indian River. Once upon a time, during the spring freshette, it would have been roaring and filled with logs. 

Looking off into the Algonquin Park. That's the river down there, close to where it comes out of Sec Lake.

Rapids on both sides of the bridge.

Tomorrow I'll post the photos of our ride up the logging road past my place.