Oct 21: Fall Foliage

Fall color is finally here. Sort of. I took all the photos below on the same day: Saturday, October 20. As you can see, some areas of the Shenandoah have color, and some are still green as grass. (Of course, a lot of the grass isn't green, but brown, due to the lack of rain over the past few weeks!)

The first two pictures, showing riotous fall color, were taken on North River Road, about a mile south of the Towers Ruritan Club, southwest of Natural Chimneys Park, just before you enter the George Washington National Forest at Stokesville. Click on the picture for a larger and clearer version.



This next picture is about a mile away from the two above, and actually at a slightly higher elevation, along Lick Run Road, also west of Natural Chimneys Park. This is about five miles west of Bridgewater. Notice the color among the treetops just peeking out over the top.


The picture below is on U.S. 11, in "downtown" Fort Defiance, just north of Augusta Stone Church, on the edge of the cemetery, across the street from the old Fort Defiance Post Office.



This photo below shows one of the many areas of the valley that are still relatively green. Taken on the same day as the others, this view is looking southwest from Spring Hill Road, just north of its intersection with Mt. Solon Road. This is just north of the community of Spring Hill, a few miles west of Fort Defiance and a few miles east of Moscow and Parnasssus, Virginia.

The photo below is also taken on the same day, and shows my office building at JMU: Showker Hall. Notice the nice maples, but also notice the green leaves on the redbud and elms.

By the way, a tidbit for Queen Karena and Sgatorboy: Your chocolate bars are on the way. We had to wait until the weather cooled down a bit so the Belgian chocolate wouldn't melt. Of course, it still isn't cool enough, so you may need a straw when it arrives. Good luck.

And the Winner is...

If you read the posts below, you will eventually come to the July 17 post in which I ask if anyone is reading my blogs. Queen Karana and Sgaterboy are the winners! (And that's because the other two entrants have already had enough Belgian chocolate to last them till Thanksgiving!) Send me an email (fordhadr@jmu.edu) giving me a mailing address and I'll get the chocolate bars in the mail. It is now cool enough that they won't melt in the mail.

Oct 1 -- Apples

For some reason, this year has been a good year for our apple trees. A late freeze last spring killed all the peaches and pears -- we have one little lonesome pear all by itself, and no peaches whatsoever. But the apple trees were just loaded down with juicy apples. They are smaller than you usually get in the store, but mmmm, they are tasty. We had so many, we invited loads of people over to pick them, and ended up putting them on freecycle. I'm a little tired of apples right now.