The sun is now setting and rising at times more typical of southern climes (as of today, the sun is rising at 7:25AM and setting at 10:18PM ) and daylength will continue shortening until we reach the perpetual darkness of December. (Although I love sunlight, this seems an exciting part of this adventure too.)
Autumn is also now in full swing and night temperatures have been dropping to just below freezing. Today’s high may reach 11C but for now (middayish), we’re just at 6C and TM is celebrating the return to wooly sweater weather and relishing the thought of coming winter snows.
Although I miss the fall colours and smells of Ontario’s hardwoods, the north has its own fall magic. The blueberry and bearberry bushes are shades of red, burghundy and purple and the birch, poplar and willow provide wonderful contrasts of yellow against the red shrubs and the green spruce. The familiar spicy smell of decaying leaves is just beginning as the first of the poplar leaves begin to fall and settle among the shrub layer and over the mosses and lichens. The local fireweed plants remind me of the flame-licked colours of Ontario’s sumac: brilliant reds giving way to bright orange and yellows all on the same plant or even on the same leaves.
Autumn is also now in full swing and night temperatures have been dropping to just below freezing. Today’s high may reach 11C but for now (middayish), we’re just at 6C and TM is celebrating the return to wooly sweater weather and relishing the thought of coming winter snows.
Although I miss the fall colours and smells of Ontario’s hardwoods, the north has its own fall magic. The blueberry and bearberry bushes are shades of red, burghundy and purple and the birch, poplar and willow provide wonderful contrasts of yellow against the red shrubs and the green spruce. The familiar spicy smell of decaying leaves is just beginning as the first of the poplar leaves begin to fall and settle among the shrub layer and over the mosses and lichens. The local fireweed plants remind me of the flame-licked colours of Ontario’s sumac: brilliant reds giving way to bright orange and yellows all on the same plant or even on the same leaves.
TM took this photo on his way home from work on Friday.
Scenes like these make me smile!
And this does too:Scenes like these make me smile!
I love watching the ravens. I suppose most residents here regard them as pests as they’ll soon rip open any garbage bags left out and unattended but I love them for their curiosity, intelligence and wonderfully varied calls. Sometimes as in this picture, a raven will perch on our balcony and peer at our bikes or look in the windows. I’m sure I’ve watched one chattering to its own reflection sounding as though it was gargling water. This was the first time I had a camera handy when one paid a visit but I only managed the single photo before my movement alerted it to my presence and it flew off.Yesterday from our balcony, we watched an interesting interaction between a red squirrel and a raven in a nearby birch tree. The raven watched the squirrel as it dashed up and down the trunk opposite the raven, once almost landing on the bird as it raced around and leaped among the branches, occasionally stopping to nibble at bunches of leaves or dried catkins. The raven appeared to try pecking at the squirrel once or twice and vocalized occasionally with warbling croaks but though the squirrel could have made a getaway to other trees or across the ground, it always returned to the trunk in the vicinity of the raven. Eventually the bird left and the squirrel immediately explored the area of the branch the raven had been perched on.
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