Fall in the Alleghenies

(...taken from 9-16-12 journal entry...)  

It has been quite too long dear diary that I take pen to hand and jot words of thought.  

Today we decided to come to the mountains to winterize. It seems as though it was not too long ago that we were dusting webs of spiders and opening the doors after a long winters stillness. Spring flowers showing glistens of sunlight off their pedals...pinks, purples, blue hugging close to the ground amist soft blotches of green moss.  

After walking across the rivers edge, taking note of the century old maple that has shown its age countless times with worn sponged branches falling in each wind has finally snapped off falling into younger trees along the waters edge, snapping them as well...part laying in the shallows of the river edge. 

Thoughts pass through me of planting flowers in the hollows now of this massive trunk to cascade over its bark through the summer. Made a mental note of that for next spring. A bit of color draping over its sides with whispers of new life in that deadened tree. 

I am sitting at this summers ashes at the fire heaped with weathered ashes and bits of marshmallow sticks...there is a fuzzy worm crawling next to me on a stump, thoughts of mooshing it cross my mind as it now has taken new direction and is crawling a bit too close to me...instead I flicked it quite a distance away with a nearby branch. They don't creep me out until they are on me. Wooly worms don't bother me, it's all the other fuzzy species. 

The Allegheny River is very low and the island shows up more distinctly, high with grass. 

The chipmunks and squirrels are rooting through the moss looking for grubs and already storing the hickory, walnuts and acorns. I have been waiting all afternoon to either hear or see the eagles and as if right on cue, there they are...calling out for feeding time. We were privileged this summer to watch a young fledgling in the water at the edge of the island across from the yards edge. How mighty and awesome. 

This is a short visit here to flush out the water pipes and add winterizing fluids. I've already packed up items to take home to keep from freezing, so as to have "free time" to just wander around the yard exploring fall posies, new seedlings to carry through fall and winter for spring surprises. The walnut trees were hit hard this year with numerous tent worms. 

Moms grape vine that has been growing umpteen years up the ash tree is now towering over the top of the limbs, blushing with color as fall brushes by. A chipmunk just ran by me chirping as he passes, perhaps this is his stump I am sitting on. 

The Pileated Woodpecker continues to peck huge holes in the cherry tree at the edge of the yard. As I retreat up the bank, I see some humongous wooly worms, fattened for the onset of winter? What does it mean when they are solid black?