I know I don't quite have Lon's touch with postcards, but I did want to share a little bit of my weekend with you.

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Lake Nakumun is about an hour's drive north of here. The land is very flat to start, fields of golden grain and black dirt split by dark evergreens and the white bark of birch. Then the earth begins to ripple, small hillocks appear on the flat fields and the road begins to dip and rise. Areas of forest begin to grow; trees no longer grow in man-made rows, but in clumps. Bushes and deciduous trees are mostly bare of leaves now, but occasionally a bright gold shines against through the bare branches, and some of the bushes are loaded with bright red berries, likely mountain ash. Then through the trees, a flash of silvery blue. Walking through the trees, the chickadees chirp and call their distinctive "chick-a-dee-dee-dee" as they flit from tree to tree in search of the last few insects before winter's harsh diet begins. A squirrel takes exception to our presence and scolds noisily before running off to pad it's winter hole with just a few more nuts. A duck quacks on the lake, most have already flown south, but a few hardy ones remain. Looking into the shallows, a small fish maybe two inches long, flits from one bit of sea weed to another. A small insectoid looking lake denizen avoids the ducks as it runs across the sandy bottom. A deep breath of fresh air carries the unique scent of fall, a musty smell of fallen leaves with a cold tint of coming winter. On the shore a lone empty tree lifts its branches to an empty, pale blue sky. Later, clouds fill that sky and rainy snow begins to fall. The woods are silent, birds and squirrel hiding from nature's first warning whirl of winter's wind.

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), October 22, 2001

Answers

Oooooh! Pretty!

-- helen (fall@is.the.best.season), October 22, 2001.

That's wonderful, Trish! Thanks for taking us along on your walk, I needed it and enjoyed it tremendously. It's warm here again, with little sign of fall, other than the potted mums and store-bought pumpkin on the porch. I was up almost to Oklahoma last week, and there wasn't the first tree changing color yet. I envy you northern folk your autumn, but I'll always take our winter.

And Helen, just WHAT are you doing hanging out here, strolling around the woods with Trish and me? You got a story to finish, you know!

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-- Lon Frank (lgal@exp.net), October 22, 2001.

Thanks for your kind words. Coming from writers of your caliber it means more!

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), October 22, 2001.

Falllllll is fallin .... the first ten billion leaves are on the ground.

Thirty five billion still be sucked up and shredded for much mulch.

And three of the stupid rose bushed decided to start growing AGAIN!!!!!! New buds, branches, and leaves all over......

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), October 22, 2001.

I would swear I can smell winter in the air.

-- Greybear (greybear@worldemail.com), October 23, 2001.

Don't worry too much about whatever you smell.

I'm sure after both DiEtEr and Mike the Mule have taken their annual showers your sinus will clear right up ....

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), October 23, 2001.

Thanks for the picture Tricia! I remember some of our first attempts at FRLian writing (haiku's and limericks) so long ago, and have to smile... now look at you!

-- (thesonofdust@proud.ofTricia), October 26, 2001.

Ah right, what did you guys do the geese .... was driving back from Huntsville this evening and the dumb yhings were flying in a vee - but headed northeast!!!!!!

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), October 26, 2001.

They always fly northeast. They home in on magnetic north, which is actually northeast. That's what I think, anyway. They always do that around here.

'warning whirl of winter's wind." Nice meter and alliteration. Reminds me of something from the Raven: Suddenly the air grew denser/ Perfumed from an unseen censer/ swung by seraphim whose footfalls tinkled on the tufted floor."

It was a masterful word picture until the seraphim started tinkling on the floor.

-- gene (ekbaker@essex1.com), October 27, 2001.

Well Gene, when ya gotta go, ya gotta go!

-- (thesonofdust@no.tinkle), October 27, 2001.

What's the Raven? That's not the poem by Poe in which the raven raves about evermore all the time, is it?

And thanks, I think :-)

Robert, geese fly whichever way they need to in order to find food to keep them strong enough to finish their migration. Do you have a farmer's field off to the northeast of you?

And speaking of northeast, that's how we found out Carla could read when she was 3 1/2. She pointed at a sign on a building that said "Northeast Entrance" and asked what the word beside entrance was. So I told her, then did a double take and asked how she knew that the second word was entrance. She said, "Oh, I can read." (Very nonchalant). So I asked her, "What does that sign say?" And she correctly responded, "Science building." I quit reading to her then and there. I told her she needed the practice ;-)

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), October 27, 2001.

The geese .... Look, it's not my fault, but I'm telling ya: these geese were broken, or were at least following a broken compass.

Fields: Guys, I was driving the midst of thousands of square miles of farmland, trees, and lakes in Northeast Entrance, er, Alabama, on my way home from Huntsville, where, yes, I WAS working with rocket scientists - or at least rocket administrators on programs that employ rocket scientists. (I was the senior "science type" most technical) person there, so the phrase "It doesn't take a rockey scientists .. doesn't count.)

Compass: The Atlanta area (within 1 degree of it actually) is due, directly, perfectly south of the amgnetic north pole. (Unique on the North American continent - and that includes parts of Canadainininnan too - they should be flying directly south here.)

Weatehr - It's fall, according to the twenty billion leaves left to be gathered up and shredded - so they shouldn't be going north.

I'm telling you - the geese are broken.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), October 28, 2001.

Robert, at least those geese are south of the snow... there were still a gaggle of them flying around here last week after it snowed. Much harder to find fields of goose food when they're covered by snow, ya know.

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Early winter now

Green grass peeks through the soft snow

To view cool blue sky.

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), October 28, 2001.

Driving north at this time of year, the sun shines from behind. The fields have no snow cover now, and the stubble of the fall's crop covers the ground. Clouds rim the horizon, navy blue backdrop to the field's bright gold. The beauty of it is stunning, but always there is the thought that every day without snow cover is another day deeper into the deepest drought this land has seen in a century and a half - or longer. Still, hope that winter will yet drop some precious moisture is reinforced by the sight of a late, large flock of geese flying South in a perfect V. They usually leave just a week or two before the snow falls in earnest.

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), November 20, 2001.

Please welcome our newest baby granded-daughter fruitedloop to the community: Ainsley Cook was born at 2:05 (AM of course) on Friday. 1 lb 15 ounces, 21 inches long. Longest fingers and toes I've ever seen on somebody that young, and of course, dimples and dark hair.

(No, it's not gray yet. Heck, mine didn't begin turning gray until I was 17!)

Mommy and Ainsley are doing very well, everybody was checked out of the hospital by noon on Sunday; and we're starting to get back to a routine over here at this house after taking care of the her "older" (18 month) brother for a couple of days.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), November 21, 2001.

Sir Robert:

Congratulations on Princess Ainsley! Glad to hear she and her mum are well. (Her weight must have been a typo?) You and your missus must be bursting your buttons! I am several years away from being a grandmother but I hear it's grand to be a grandma/pa.

Take care and kiss the newest fruitloop for me, Linda

-- LindaMc (jmcintyre1@mmcable.com), November 21, 2001.

No way that baby was 21" long and only weighed a pound. Robert, I know YOU are skinny, but really!!! ;-)

Congratulations on the new angel.

Tricia, thank you for the beautiful postcards. (((((Tricia)))))

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), November 21, 2001.

Hmmmmn. Lettuce try 7 pounds - 15 oz. (I guess labor would have been easier at 1 lb....)

Anyway, she's not metric.

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Marietta, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), November 21, 2001.

Congratulations, Robert!!!! A practice run grandson, and a perfect granddaughter ;-) (I always wanted girls... does it show?) I'll bet that grandson of yours is a handful!

Let me see if I can "metri-size" Ainsley for you. 8 lb (less an oz), and 21"... hmmm. 3.61kg and 53.2 cm is prolly closer to what you said than the instruments can accurately measure.

Nice to see you again, Linda! Hope you're having a wonderful Thanksgiving.

((((Gayla)))) Home for the holidays? I still have some hope that we'll make it to Florida in February... unless our dollar continues to die.

-- Tricia teh Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.ent), November 22, 2001.

Yes, Tricia, we stayed here this year. We all gathered at my mom and dad's and ate LOTS of yummy food!

I sure hope we can still meet in Florida, too. The economy doesn't look very encouraging, but we still have a few months. :-)

-- Gayla (privacy@please.com), November 22, 2001.

Yippee! A new baby!

-- helen (brand@new.baby), November 23, 2001.

what u r seriously wierd

-- Alice brown (sportyaliceb@aol.com), March 29, 2004.