Sunday, September 25, 2022

Well, how about that?

He's not wrong, but ...
That tree in the neighbor's yard is well ahead of the game, never saw it do that before. Won't be long before that Japanese maple (the one in the middle, saying "Well") will be bright red, at least I hope so. There was one year where it waited and waited before donning it's bright red cloak, only to shed it all on a wind-swept rainy night in October. Barely got to see it in full grunt. Less than a day really.

Yes, fall is here. As a kid growing up the foliage was part of existence, it got so you'd look out the window and think, "Okay, colorful, nice," but you got so used to seeing it, it became almost blasé. Where we live in Little Rhody, not far from the Bay, it doesn't get all that colorful. So yeah, I miss it.

Yeah, there's a street I go down on my way to work and home again where the trees all suddenly have these deep red leaves and golden leaves as well, very striking. Then the guy down the street has a couple of trees that turn nicely.

But for the most part, when the conditions are right for max color, the conditions are also right for rain and wind. Strips all that prettiness away and flings it to the ground.

Sigh ...

Went to dinner with friends Saturday night, a Portuguese place, had a very good steak and a cuppla these -

Very crisp, lots of flavor. Went well with the steak. Next time I want to try the paelha, which is the Portuguese version of paella. My buddy assures me it's very, very good. But Saturday was a steak night, with an egg on top in a very delicious burgundy sauce, yum.

Speaking of my buddy, up until Saturday I thought that all we had in common was having Korean wives and having served in the military. Nope, there's more.

He was telling me of a trip up to Canada to sell off some family land which no one wanted.

"So where is this land?" I asked.

He pulls out his phone and shows me a map, "Here's Montreal, here's Quebec, here's where my family is from."

I looked, then I looked again. "Ya mean Trois-Rivières?" My voice betrayed my excitement I suppose.

"What? You've heard of it?"

"Heard of it, my great-grandfather was born there."

"No shit?"

"Ya, no shit."

Small world, innit?





32 comments:

  1. The Texas heat, and lack of rain, have turned the local foliage sooner than I expected. It's not looking like we'll have much color. The trees have had enough.

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    1. The amount of rain does make a difference. Not enough, no color, too much is about the same.

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  2. On my way back from buying a rifle at the Deepest Fleet Farm, I noticed that trees are starting to change, here in Wisconsin!

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  3. Deforest, not deepest, you stupid auto correct!

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  4. Question here is how the drought this year will affect the trees changing their colors. Looks to be 95% green yet and Fall temps have arrived also.

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  5. Sarge, it is a small world. About two years ago we had a new start at the dojo. He asked where I was from and I told "You would have never heard of it. It is this small town..." Turns out during the course of the conversation he had moved from the area my parents live in, only about two miles away.

    Small world indeed.

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  6. I will never understand why people don't want land. It's the only thing that you can't make more of.

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    1. Yup. It's value will go up and down, but the land remains.

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    2. Why? Because in a lot of places Government Theft (known as 'Taxes') on inherited property or any property are just too damned high, and most places raise the taxes when ownership is transferred, like when you inherit land from someone. One can be doing okay and then get hit with the inheritance difference and be forced to sell. It's what has killed off a lot of smaller farms and forced a lot of people out of cities and posh towns. (Like all the nice places in Colorado.)

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  7. Happened to me several years ago out at Moffett. I ran into a PO1 with the same name as my maternal great grandfather. Turns out we were 4th cousins or so.

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  8. McClure Pass, CO years back one fall had an amazing display of aspen in all colors then a dusting of snow. At the time I had a simple disposable camera and the pictures didn't do the scene credit. We in the Rockies may become blase about the aspen colors but that one day will always remain a fond memory.

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    1. I miss the aspen, heck, I miss the Rocky Mountains a lot. But the sea calls to me, so here I am.

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  9. Yeah, here in The Big Humid, you can tell autumn has arrived when the mosquito swarms thin out a bit...and the willow oaks turn brown. Temperatures, well, we can hope!

    I miss the Adirondack autumnal color shows. When on Da Griff long ago, folks would do recces and report conditions and locations. Old Forge usually had spectacular foliage shows.

    Funny you mention Canada, one of my Scots great grandfathers was born in Nova Scotia, and came in through Boston. Interesting how many of the decendants of Scotsmen who came to these shores ended up in the US military. I've run into a fair number.

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    1. As to "when the mosquito swarms thin out a bit," that right there has to be a blessing.

      As to Scotsmen in the U.S. military, that would make an interesting study.

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  10. Oh yeah, that was Crusty Old TV Tech reporting in.

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  11. We've tot some color change even here. Of course the pines have been shedding needles like crazy due to off/on too much/too little rain.

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    1. 'Tot'? Darned fat fingers, supposed to be 'got.'

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    2. Pines do like to shed, and you have a lot of 'em down there as I recall.

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    3. I do that all of the time. Me and the keyboard aren't friends any more.

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  12. Good thing Fiona didn’t pass your way. Those trees would have been pretty much history. Some even could be history - she took down a lot of trees. Sad.

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