I AM A LEAF ON THE WIND…

AUTUMN

BEAUTIFUL COLLAGE OF COLORS, ALL ON ONE TREE

Autumn is in full swing here in Yakima, as we watch the leaves on the trees start to change color in large numbers. Taking note of that, Linda and I decided to take a walk at Tahoma Cemetery this past week. Some of the trees there were decked out in the most beautiful shades of yellow, orange, red, and green.

A great number of the trees at the cemetery are really quite large. That’s one reason we like to walk there, because those trees are perhaps some of the oldest ones in Yakima. We also like to walk there because we usually have the place all to ourselves. As Linda said, there are lots of people there, they just aren’t up walking around anymore.

STUNNING COLOR

I THINK THE YELLOW LEAVES ARE MY FAVORITE

We saw lots of Canada Geese there grazing amidst the gravestones. I think so many of them love to go to the cemetery for the same reasons we do. They know the people there won’t harass them.

OUR FEATHERED FRIENDS

We had a good walk that morning and only passed by one other living soul (at a very safe distance). As we were leaving in the truck, I spotted this below in the Veteran’s section of the cemetery.

YAKIMA HONORS OUR MILITARY HEROES

BIG HARVEST

The other day I went out to the garden and got one of my biggest harvests of the season. I picked all of this in one day. It is worthy of note this season because the harvesting has been pretty puny from day to day. In years past, I would pick this much produce a couple of times a day. This year, it takes about a week to get a third of my bucket full. Anyway, I guess I should be glad I got as much as I did. It has all been very yummy, and makes for a beautiful picture!

SEVERAL DAY’S HARVEST

I will probably be pulling the garden up in the next week, so there won’t be too many more posts of my whining about the sad harvests I have gotten (I can hear a collective “thank you!”).

PUZZLE UPDATE

We’ve been doing new puzzles the last couple of weeks, and we just finished one that was extremely hard. It features a collage of Norman Rockwell’s paintings. Even though it was one of the harder ones, it was still very enjoyable. The back of the puzzle box had this to say about the puzzle: “Norman Rockwell (1894-1978), The Saturday Evening Post’s most famous and prolific illustrator, is considered by many to be the greatest American artist of all time. His association with The Post began in 1916. At the age of 22, he painted his first cover for The Saturday Evening Post. During his more than 50-year career with The Post, Rockwell contributed over 300 paintings.” (from Master Pieces Puzzles & Games)

The Saturday Evening Post “Rockwell Collage”

NIGHT SKIES

We have had a lot of clear skies lately, and this has been most welcome after the weeks of smokey and overcast days and nights. Due to these clear skies, Linda and I have been going outside a lot lately to watch the International Space Station (ISS) go by overhead. We get the opportunity to do this when the orbit brings it overhead at a decent hour for us to see it, usually for a few days each month. The ISS completes an orbit of the Earth in about 90 minutes, so some nights we have two passages overhead during the optimal viewing time (which for us is currently between 7:00pm and 9:00pm). Last night we went out to watch the passage so I took my camera and got this video below. I hope you can see it because the ISS is just a tiny dot that moves across the sky. But it is usually brighter than most of the other heavenly objects in the sky. Last night it appeared in the Western sky near a bright star. In the video you can see the ISS over to the right. It passes by the bright star and moves towards the left side of the screen. I had to keep zooming out so you could see both the star and the ISS. As it passes over the roof of our house, you can see a very bright planet, which is Jupiter, and to the left of that, very faintly, you can see Saturn. I got this information from a very interesting website called Time and Date (link here).

VIDEO OF INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION

An ISS siting lasts anywhere between one and five minutes or so. I know our neighbors probably wonder why we are standing out in our driveway looking up at the sky. It’s one of the little pleasures in life, to see something that amazing go by right over your head. Like I told Linda, “We are such nerds.”

Some nights we get to see beautiful sunsets when there are clouds present to reflect the light. Last night was completely clear without a cloud in the sky, but a few nights earlier when we went out to watch, the sky was gorgeous.

OUR NEIGHBORHOOD

UNEXPECTED VISITOR

A few days ago I went out to the garden and was greeted by this sight in the video below:

VIDEO EVIDENCE

It appears we have a nocturnal visitor to the garden. So far, I haven’t noticed anything being munched on, but there isn’t much out there right now. Something is piling up dirt and digging holes, though. This just goes to show you that Summer Girl is not doing her job like she used to. I guess she’s depressed due to the quarantine, like the rest of us.

PARTING SHOT

This video below shows how the little girl “protects” my garden from intruders…she just can’t be bothered.

VIDEO OF THE FEARLESS PROTECTOR

Join me every Wednesday (barring any unforeseen circumstances) for more from the Southerner in the Northwest.