The Changing Seasons, November 2020

This has been an interesting year, depending on how you define “interesting.” How can you have a year that is on one hand, terrifying (I’ll skip the list of reason) and simultaneously, dull. The good parts were an exceptional autumn that started early, lasted a long time. Had pretty much perfect weather throughout, but ended rather abruptly after one stormy night. Still, even without the long month of bronze oak leaves, it was a wonderful Autumn. AND we had our presidential election and our guy won.

Over all, the weather has been warmer than usual. We’ve had quite a few chilly days, but then the warm days come back. So we had ONE snow — 6 inches — the day before Halloween. One very light dusting since them. A good deal of rain — which we badly need after our extremely dry summer — and even though we had all our leaves cleaned up, the next day the oaks dropped their leaves, so we are STILL covered in leaves. We got the maple and early oak leaves up, but the oaks did something they usually don’t do, which was drop in one huge bunch. We couldn’t make sense of the weather before climate change. It make even less sense now!

We have also had the most acrobatic squirrels ever. These smaller red squirrels are less aggressive than the bigger gray ones, and delightfully agile. It’s like watching a trapeze act on the deck! And one of them seems to be turning white. the other is turning more gray. I guess they are supposed to change color? I had never heard that before.

And that more of less sums it up for November. Didn’t go anywhere except the grocery store and UMass. It was a quiet Thanksgiving. I’m hoping we manage to have a bit livelier Christmas!

The above gallery were all take in the early part of November. By the end of the month, the trees were completely bare. That is unusual. The oaks normally hang onto their leaves until the end of the month at least and sometimes well into December. This time, over night, a million brown leaves fell and since we live in an oak woods, that’s a LOT of leaves. It was just one day after having the guys come and clean up the property. Couldn’t afford it twice, so the leaves are going to mulch into the soil this winter. Maybe that heavy leaf collapse from the oaks was because of the long drought?

COVID is back all over the States, but it’s not too bad here. I hope everyone had a good November and next month will be even better.

About the Changing Seasons

From Su Leslie:

The Changing Seasons is a monthly challenge where bloggers around the world share what’s been happening in their month. If you would like to join in, here are some guidelines:

The Changing Seasons Version One (photographic):

Each month, post 5-20 photos in a gallery that you feel represent your month. Don’t use photos from your archive. Only new shots. Tag your posts with #MonthlyPhotoChallenge and #TheChangingSeasons so that others can find them.

The Changing Seasons Version Two (you choose the format):

Each month, post a photo, recipe, painting, drawing, video, whatever that you feel says something about your month. Don’t use archive stuff. Only new material! Tag your posts with #MonthlyPhotoChallenge and #TheChangingSeasons so others can find them. One thing that won’t change though. Include a ping-back to this post, and I’ll update it with links to all of yours.

For those of us who have participating in this challenge for years since the first years when Cardinal Guzman ran it, I think we have developed our own style. I could never just one picture. I’m too indecisive. Given the rapidly changing climate we are experiencing, I think has become an important challenge. 

Categories: #gallery, #Photography, Autumn, Blackstone Valley, climate change, leafing

Tags: #MonthlyPhotoChallenge, #Photography, #TheChangingSeasons, Marilyn and Garry Armstrong, November 2020