Morning on the Homestead

Good day fellow gardeners! Today I awoke to a brisk fall day (25F), just the kind we all know and cherish for its refreshing coolness. Yeah, Right! It was downright cold!

The plants do look beautiful though, in their frosty garb. The Dianthus especially looks like it was made for winter. Sedum turns yellowish-brown as if trying to compete with tree and shrub leaves.

Fall colors aside, the frost adds so much more to the overall beauty of a garden.

I grew up in Indiana ans always looked forward to the fall colors. We lived near a large corn field, who doesn’t in Indiana, and it was always bittersweet to see the skeletons of corn stalks standing as reminders of the wonderful ears of corn they always gave us. And fall always brought out the most gorgeous reds and yellows, especially southern Indiana around Morgan-Monroe State Park. Here in Utah, we don’t get much of that spectrum of color. We have the golden shimmering leaves of Aspen as our color guard. But their large swaths looked like gold veins running through mountain sides.

Every morning the Mourning Doves look so peaceful sitting in their high perches atop the trees gathering up the suns warming rays. I always feel so bad when I walk out to the backyard and they all leave their warm, sunny perches as I approach to fill the two birdbaths with fresh water. I have to do this to break up the ice from the previous evening thus allowing them to drink. They soon come back as though to forgive me for disturbing them.

Every morning, at 8:45, the elementary school, which sits the other side of a row of houses from me, plays a song to get the children’s day started. They play a wide variety of songs, from ‘Good Vibrations’ by the Beach Boys to ‘Good Morning Starshine’ by Oliver. And then one of the students recites the pledge of allegiance. It’s a very pleasant way to start a school day.

The birds are constantly singing and vying for a perch to sit and eat. They can never sit for very long as there is always another bird waiting its turn, and they are not afraid to push each other off so they can eat. All in all I guess it is a system that keeps them all fed.

I noticed the Dark-eyed Junco has returned. They don’t sit on perches as the other birds do so they eat off of the ground with the Doves.

I have been suffering a head cold and sore throat for the last couple of days so I don’t feel real cheery but the these morning sounds and rituals are comforting.

I have been reading ‘Animal, Vegetable, Miracle’ by Barbara Kingsolver about one families attempt to escape our dependence on industrial-food to the rural life where they vow to buy only locally grown produce, grow it themselves or learn to do without. The book serves to enlighten us to how corporations are replacing America’s once thriving, diversified family farms with mono-cultured acres of corn and soybeans to feed ‘food animals’ who spend their entire lives stuffed in pens and loaded with antibiotics and growth hormones to fatten them up for market.

The book has really awakened, in me, the need to get back to celebrating local farmers by buying our produce at farmers markets instead of supermarkets and shunning the out-of-season produce, with its bland taste and questionable nutritional value. Growing our own is much more healthy and would help cut back on the vast amounts of petroleum required to transport produce from thousands of miles away.

With the cost of fuel rising so rapidly we may for forced to return to the local farmer for our produce out of financial necessity. Wouldn’t that be ironic? To have to buy locally because fuel prices are too high.

We have become spoiled by having out-of-season fruit and vegetables at our fingertips. The price of that luxury is far higher than we know. Read this book and you’ll be surprised at how much it really costs us.

Well, I have chores to get to and miles to go before I sleep. Good day!

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Autumn colors-Alpine Loop

Finally was able to find the time to take a drive up into the mountains to see the trees changing colors. Beautiful as always.

Drove part of the Provo Canyon Scenic Byway, along the Provo River, gold medal trout fishing just so ya know.

The above photo was taken just downstream from Bridal Veil Falls, shown below. There used to be an aerial tram that you could ride up to the top of the falls. This photo was taken a few months ago when the water was flowing a lot better than it is this time of year.


After we got back into our car we drove a little further up the canyon to the turnoff to Sundance Ski Resort. Lots of activity up there, everyone anticipating this winters great skiing that Utah is famous for.

The mountains are sprinkled with Aspen trees and their golden yellow leaves never disappoint.
This is a shot of Mt. Timpanogos from about 7,000 feet. It stands at 11,749 ft. One of the tallest peaks here in the Wasatch Mountain range. The first snow arrived about ten days ago. It was a bit overcast so it was difficult to get a better shot of it being up in the clouds and all.
We took a short hike along the middle Provo River trail but didn’t see any fish. The river was running swift and deep and the water was extremely cold.
There were several fly fishermen in waders, I should have gotten some photos. No one I talked to had caught anything but there were a few fish about.

We did find this Eagles nest on this telephone pole. I guess they couldn't find a tall enough tree, although there were some around. Didn't get to see any Eagles but we did see a few Falcons and Hawks.

These signs are posted throughout the area and were put up after several sightings and near encounters earlier this Spring.
It says that if confronted with a bear and you can’t get away that you should yell, scream, kick, fight back and be aggressive. Whether or not this actually works, I will never know because I have no intention of testing the theory out.

The air was crisp, the sun was warm, the perfect mountain air for sight seeing.

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