Looking out my back porch door

/ October 18, 2014
The lot to the right has leaves going down.

The lot to the right has leaves going down.

Stepping to the top step of the porch to let Ellie B aka Dogamous Pyle out to do her backyard morning thing, I couldn’t help but look right and left to check out autumn’s progress in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood.

The empty lot to the right has a brightly yellowed tree hiding out on the back line, with a hint of orange trying to make a statement, too. Many of the leaves have already fallen to the grass.

Yellow and orange to the left.

Yellow and orange to the left.

Off to Good Neighbor Tim’s left side, his white birch hugging his house has gone yellow-toward-brown.

Off past his workshop, though, a tree in the backyard on the next street is making a much more colorful statement. I’d even declare red winning the battle to be the primary color.

White daisies still blooming in the butterfly garden.

White daisies still blooming in the butterfly garden.

Straight back in our butterfly garden, meanwhile, a daisy plant refuses to give up its rightful place in the seasonal sun, still pushing out white blossoms.

That earns a mid-October hurrah in Central New York amid the changing leaves.

What percentage turned-to-autumn do you think it is in your part of our world? Go to one of your doors, look left and right, and what do you see? Do you consider yourself the type that goes through life looking straight ahead, or meandering sideways sometimes, and wouldn’t you love to share a story about going the opposite way than usual?

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64 thoughts on “Looking out my back porch door”

  2. Wow, I’ve missed your blog. I’m finally getting caught up with blog reading.

    It’s so important to take in our surroundings, especially during the beautiful fall season. Fall is my favorite time of year.

    Supposedly the colors are peaking right about now, but it doesn’t look it. I can’t give it a percentage, but I can just say- not colorful enough.
    xoxo

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  3. 80-85%, I’d say. interesting Q on how we move forward. I spent the first 35 years of my life doing exactly what I was supposed to do, rarely stopping to smell roses or enjoy leaves turning and certainly never veering from a planned course. Then something snapped in me and I went down a terribly dark alley (oops) and almost lost my way. So now I try to enjoy the wander more and tend to do a lot more zig-zaggnig.

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  5. Mark … It’s green as far as the eye can see in Florida. That’s just the way the seasons roll around here. The good news is: the ocean is just a short drive from our door. We spent the weekend with our grands exploring some of the coast – space and treasure. I do envy the display of fall colors you’re enjoying. Thanks for sharing the photos.

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  6. Mark, I LOVE the view out your backdoor, even despite the Big Pine Neighbor and the Occasional Skunk. And pulling autumn into the view makes it even more stunning! Here, my autumn colors are green. Our four seasons are hot, hotter, rainy, and hurricane. The colors are green, greener, more green, and dead. Dead usually comes in late January when we finally get a cold front that goes from cooling everything down to freezing and then the humidity makes the cold feel even colder than when it snows (excluding the wind in a good snow which whips right through). When that happens, a lot of the leaves (bit not all of them) fall off and then the roaches come to burrow in them unless we get them raked up timely. (YUCK!) I’m definitely not the tourism spokesperson for my home state, am I? 😉 Though I could write volumes of glowing reviews about yours. 🙂

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  7. I definitely notice everything around me, much to my chagrin when I almost run people and things down with my power chair, but am learning to stop when I look around now after the last close call. Here in town the color change is about 10%, but out in the country it is prettier, 20 to 40%, depending on how close the trees are to each other and the roads. Saw a large golden presence yesterday for the first time in weeks, but was assured it wasn’t dangerous–it was sunshine showing for the first time in 3 or 4 weeks after rain and clouds seemed destined to last forever. Lovely sight when I got used to it.

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  8. Mark, I do get thinking about things and sometimes not notice the beauty around me, but it’s something I’m trying hard to change. The trees in my part of the world are mostly yellow and orange, about half the leaves have fallen. You’ve inspired me to stop and do some leaf-peeping, so a walk at Beaver Lake Nature Center tomorrow (if not too cold) is in order. Nice pix, nice post. Happy Fall to All. 🙂

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  10. hah, when i read your great title, i wondered if it was a take on the ccr classic song – as for the update of fall at the cottage it’s about half way there, and i tend to swivel all around, not one to only look straight ahead. )

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  11. I LOVE autumn, and i would say I’m a meanderer! There are a lot of gold hues outside my window now, with splashes of red and russet. Hubs and I spent the day outside securing the garden, getting ready for the chance of high winds from Hurricane Gonzalo tonight.
    Thanks for sharing pics from your door.

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  13. Yes, it’s getting more colorful and beautiful by the day, isn’t it Mark? i was sitting on the front step yesterday admiring the colors and, as you say, looking all around. Over my head, the maple leaves closest to the house and lowest on the branches are still an even more brilliant green seemingly brighter than all summer. Above them is yellow sprinkled with orange, with a few empty branches at the top. The sidewalk and front walk are buried under leaves. Aross the street there is a small maple no higher than 7 feet and it had turned completely red and all the leaves fell off in a ring around the tree. There are white plants under the little tree and now they have a red ring around them – it is so gorgeous. It’s been warm here this week too – between 70 and 80 during the day. Nights have been cooler but it has rained a lot.the last few nights and days. Much cooler and cloudy today.

    Neat post Mark and I loved the pictures.

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  14. I think we are up to 70% or more. It happened almost overnight. If the kid goes on the road today, it will be interesting to get his take on the changeover since he will going through the mountains vs. me trying to compare a tree here and there.

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  15. I love the vibrant colours in your neck of the woods Mark! Here in western Canada, it’s mostly yellow but I remember the beautiful maple trees of my home province – it was stunningly beautiful!
    Diana xo

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  17. Love going for a wander. Sort of autumn here but still really warm. I am looking forward to crisp autumn days. Your garden is still looking great – can’t believe the summer has been and gone already!

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    • We had lots of days in the 70s this week, even a couple in the 80s, Rachel. The plants are confused. But this morning I heard the furnace kick on a few times, so it must have dipped back down to autumn like normal. Yay. It’s time.

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  18. I think upwards of 70% have started to turn. I noticed on my last mini hike the other day that some trees are full blown yellow and orange and half of their leaves are down. Other trees have turned a muted greenish brown. Others have bright patches of red amidst the green still stubbornly claiming their right to be. It won’t be much longer. We will have a short window of full brilliant color bursting trees. Then….wooooshhhhhh…..gone to sleep for the winter.

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  19. Definitely meandering here, too. We are maybe 15% into fall color right now? Who knows, I’m judging by my own yard which has giant old oaks that don’t drop their leaves until Thanksgiving. they are still 90% green. Think of us in November….up to our eyebrows in leaves…..

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    • I will think of you rakishly, Barbara, as I ready for turkey and trimmings. Up to three years ago we had a silver maple in our backyard that I called the biggest tree in Eastwood. It was HUGE. It doubled its height in the first seven years we lived here, I estimated, and it was the biggest tree on the block when we moved in.

      It was a double-trunk out of a V crook that started just two feet from the ground, and I worried greatly about it tumbling onto our Little Bitty one-story every Big Wind. I called in the tree experts, and Jason said if we pruned it from the top, it would grow even faster, and I was right in my estimation that it had doubled in the time we’d moved in because the previous folks had pruned it from the top. He looked at the crook and our house and said if I were you …

      Its many leaves that canopied the entire lot and then some used to stay green until November, just like your mighty oaks. Fortunately, we have many trees still surrounding our yard to still provide shade.

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  20. Hi, Mark! Great post. To answer your questions: (1) I’m guessing about 15 to 20%, right now (2) I see friendly neighbors (3) I consider myself the meandering type (4) I always love to share stories and music, too, and I’m not sure if this goes in the opposite way than usual, but I’m going to try to post a link to a song here.

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