How about some Fall foliage

Well, being a few hours north of the city we are already experienceing some peak Fall foliage. I don't know what kind of tall bush this is but it has turned from green into a vibrant maroon and red. It's nice to walk out the door every morning and be greeted by such beautiful color.

This tall tree which resides on our neighbor Chick Yatsko's property but hangs over ours is turning color on its northeast side but hasn't yet turned on the Western side.

Taking a few steps further towards the back you can see that some trees have started to turn color while others have not. The Red Maple should turn orange or red before the leaves fall.

We had a few dying trees that we removed to the left and right of this one a few weeks ago when we had Eric, the local tree serviceman, trim the large locust tree in the front of the house, and remove the Arborvitae tree from the front porch area. We are going to replace it with a Japanese Maple tree in the Spring. The old swing set will be home to some hanging plants, probably some Impatiens, Lobelia, and some other annuals. We are also thinking of starting a little pet cemetary in front of the brush behind the old swing set.

Groton is situated in a valley. Here is a picture of the hillside taken from the trail behind our house. Already many of the trees have gone brown from the rain we have gotten in the last few days but some are still green. Different trees have different times for turning color. The ones that bloom in the Spring are the ones that usually lose their chlorophyll first and begin to show their yellows, oranges and reds.

Walking on the trail behind our property you can already see most leaves near the beaver pond have already fallen. There are lots of deer tracks in the mud—they have been coming by our house, eating the apples that have fallen from the trees.

Nancy and I have seen a mom and her two fauns. They are really beautiful animals...

...and difficult to photograph—they get spooked very easily and can run really fast!