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Leaving the Kancamagus highway, we took an alternate route. Up and over the Bear Notch road.
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In certain sections, the autumn color was stunning.
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And from the scenic lookout where I screamed at my husband to stop the car….
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Pure perfection.
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Breathe deep of that fresh, crisp mountain air….
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And you’ll know why I keep returning to visit these glorious unspoiled areas.
❤️
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It’s that time of year…
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The short window between Halloween and Thanksgiving when that sickeningly sweet, multi colored, triangular abomination is everywhere. My mother used to have jars of it scattered around the house when I was growing up. Why? I don’t know… nobody who lived there ate it.
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Global distaste for the product is right up there with kale, and yet it persists.
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In all my years I’ve only met a few people who truly enjoy the stuff. Take a bow Mark, I’m talking about you and your Spam addled taste buds.
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Okay, I admit that last picture is kind of fun… but I’m still not eating it.
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We didn’t have to look any further than out our balcony to find a stunning vista of changing leaves. Every morning the color was slightly different.
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And you know I couldn’t resist that.
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On our way out that morning I noticed a sign I hadn’t spotted the night before… and I had a hard time believing it wasn’t put there just for me.
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No worries Pollard Brook Resort, I didn’t see any to feed… though I do take exception to the word varmint. In my experience, there are far more two legged ones of those.
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Ah… I do love the mountains.
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On the agenda that morning? Sabbaday Falls off the Kancamagus highway.
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It won’t surprise you to learn my husband’s first thought when he read this was, “I wonder if the tools are still there…” Good thing he didn’t have a shovel handy.
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It was just under half a mile hike to the falls.
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Past a babbling brook and on a wide, leaf lined path.
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As the elevation increased, fencing.
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It was so beautiful. So peaceful…
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A little farther on and the brook turned into a pool.
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Surrounded by glacial boulders. I was in rock heaven…
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And the husband was taking pictures, so you know it was good.
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We’ve driven by this area numerous times but never took the time to stop. Clearly that was a mistake.
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It took 10,000 years for water to wear down the rock and form the falls.
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With my bad knee, it took me nearly half that time to climb all the stairs.
To be continued….
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One of the nicest things about our resort in the mountains? Beautiful fall foliage right outside our door.
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We were a little past peak for this trip but it was still a lovely palette of color to wake up to.
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This quirky coffee house right down the road only opened the day we left which was disappointing. I haven’t been half baked in decades.
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First day of our trip? We drove…
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Here.
There.
Wherever the leaves took us.
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And if you’re driving with my husband that means traveling on some pretty obscure back roads. Often ones that turn to dirt.
Miles and miles, up and over mountains where there’s nothing but glorious foliage, nature….
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Bear warnings….
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And a randomly placed portapotty.
( Spellcheck kept changing this to portal Otto. I may have missed a prime Tardis opportunity there.)
Here’s a short clip of the splendor. Yours truly is announcing the sighting of turkeys on the left, repeatedly and quite loudly. I do this when I spot cows as well, though in the deeper audible resonance they deserve.
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Ah….
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I love fall!
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It’s Maine.
It’s autumn.
No commentary necessary, just enjoy.
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❤️
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Fortified with a wonderful meal, we continued our aimless wandering through Vermont.
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It’s hard to take a bad photo there, especially in the fall. Mountains, trees, and cows.
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Mountains, cows, and farms.
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Every once in a while you’ll pass through a town.
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Then it’s back to mountains, trees, and cows.
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And a very serious porch lover.
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Also, there were fish.
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I have no explanation for random fish, but they were delightful all the same.
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Autumn in New England. The pumpkins, the apples, the brightly colored foliage. You really can’t beat it.
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Nice try Florida, but you’re not even close.
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The poor man has been eating tofu burgers and kale sausage… can you really blame him?
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Gee, here’s an idea…. how about cleaning the litter box you freakin’ idiot.
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I think the parent foxes have booted the kids out of the den. They’re here every evening now.
💕
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I woke up yesterday morning to fog in our neighbor’s field….
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And the distinct sound of rumbling…. which at this time of year could only mean one thing.
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Fall in the country means bush hogging and as the sun started to break through, the hog was hard at work.
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Our neighbor hires a local man every autumn to knock down the growth in her fields. This is necessary if you want to keep fields from becoming forests and since he’s right next door…. we piggyback on the opportunity and have him do our little parcel of back field as well.
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And as I looked out on our backyard pre hogging, I was pleased to see the maple trees we planted this spring had survived the awful summer drought and were beginning to turn color like their larger neighbors.
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It was touch and go for a while. Maine was hot and dry for months and we’re on a well. I had to stop dragging my 300 feet of hose out there to water them and I feared our nearly $1,000 investment would shrivel up and die. But they seem to have hung on and for that I’m grateful.
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Later on in the day it was our turn.
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And those trees sure do make a dramatic background for hogging.
🙂
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We’ve had some much needed, glorious rain lately and though another leak has sprung in the continuing nightmare that is our roof…. don’t ask, I’m too disgusted to talk about it ….. our once brown lawn is green again.
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With just a hint of leaves starting to turn in the background.
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I’m wondering how vibrant the autumn show will be this year due to the long summer drought. Fingers are crossed.
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So true I had to share.
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Asparamancer?
It’s official, I’ve heard everything now.
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Fall is tree pruning time and since our two mature apples and one small crabapple were in desperate need, we hired a professional arborist.
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That’s him tackling the out of control crabapple.
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And that’s him strapped onto a branch thinning out our (probably 45 year old) Macintosh.
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There were branches everywhere by the end of the day.
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Which made me glad clean up was included in the price.
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Crabapple before, with a 2×4 holding up a broken section.
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Crabapple after. It looks positively naked, but he assured us it would fill back in nicely next spring.
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Mature apples before.
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Mature apple trees after. The lighting is bad, but trust me… they were thinned out considerably and are probably breathing a sigh of relief as we speak.
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The arborist was here for 5 hours and did a wonderful job trimming and cleaning up. He even raked the lawn.
(The pear tree was also pruned, but I forgot to snap pics.)
Cost?
$400…. which I think was very reasonable.
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River's world..... 