Almost Fall

Emily posted recently about spring in New Zealand, so here is a post about fall in Vermont. It isn't officially fall until Monday 9/22, but it felt like a beautiful fall day today.

This year's firewood is all stacked in the basement. Today Nancy and I finished stacking next year's firewood outside to dry over the winter:

After visiting Pager, we went for a walk in the Mills Riverside Park in Underhill and Jericho. This park was established about 8 years ago. It is 20 minutes from home and I drive by it on my way to work, but we have never been there until today. It is very nice!

Jericho was the home of Snowflake Bentley, and the pavilion in the park is named for him. (Pager remembers going to a talk by Snowflake Bentley as a youth.)


There are several nice trails. One of the trails in the woods came out on a meadow where a farmer was baling hay with Mt. Mansfield in the background:

Another meadow was devoted to monarch butterflies:

This was an Eagle Scout project last year by Brian Kennedy:

Nancy took some great photos of monarch butterflies feeding on the wild asters:


There was also plenty of milkweed, which they eat in the caterpillar stage:


In a couple of weeks we should have some good foliage pictures to post. Happy fall to everyone in the northern hemisphere, and happy spring to everyone in the southern hemisphere!