Black Walnuts Losing Most of Their Leaves

October 8, 2010.  Friday.

Situation:  I have no work today or tonight.  Moi is helping me to try to get my computer to run smoother and faster, and she has gone out to get more RAM.  And she has set up an appointment for me tomorrow to have my computer diagnosed for software issues.  Right now, it’s 11:20, and I’m trying to figure out when today would be the best time to take Mway for her walk (in the past weeks, if not months, it seems I’ve gotten into the habit of just taking her for one walk a day, whether or not I could do more).  Right now, after spending much of the morning on some work I don’t get paid for, I feel like I could use some sunshine and fresh air.  When I take Mway for a walk around noon, that usually ends up being a walk that covers both a morning and an afternoon walk.  I’m going to go right now and put on my walking clothes.

State of the Path:  I bring along the clippers and go down the side path along the old orchard, clipping any sagging goldenrod I see as I go along.  Some of the goldenrod is still yellow, most of it now has a brown and gray tinge, and here and there I see some stalks that are completely dry and brown, with fuzzy white flowers on top.  Fully leafed grapevines hang on some of the bare branches of the trees, one especially hearty and thick grapevine growing in the cedar near the hedgerow.  The Arums still have their red berries.  Moi has told me that we’ve yet to have a frost, so the black walnuts have turned yellow and have lost most of their leaves before the oaks and maples have turned full color, and they’re losing some of their leaves already.  Down at bug land, it’s warm enough I see a Dobson fly or something and a monarch (or viceroy).  Brown birds in the trees along the creek – I’d like to know what these are, but I can never get a good sight of them.  I go across the feed channel (with some difficulty since I didn’t bring my walking stick -- I have to use my clippers as support instead).  A lot of weeds to clip back on the crest of the skating pond, and at one point I nearly stumble in a dip in the ground that I don’t see because of the weeds I’m clipping down.  The asters are still blooming, and along the ridge of bug land, I spot one heal-all still in bloom.

State of the Creek:  Mway goes into the water beneath the tree stand and wades down the stream to her favorite exit below the honeysuckle bush.  Some of the rocks now rise above the water, and are drying in the sun.  A frog plops into the water.  It’s warm enough I see one water strider, casting its weird shadow upon the rocks in the water.

The Fetch:  It’s also warm enough I see grasshoppers hopping away from me in the clearing.  I toss the stick into the taller goldenrod, and Mway and I are succeeding in beating down much of the goldenrod in the wedge in front of the “chokeberry.”