Yesterday was a good day. Everywhere I looked something glowed. When I went to see Barb Higgins for my regular shearing, I stopped to make portraits of her birch tree. She caught me at it and laughed. It’s her favorite tree, and although one customer told her she should cut it down to make more room for parking, she thinks not. I’m glad it’s staying. Just look at that bright white bark against the gold. Then look more closely at the tender inner bark.
Later in the day Miss Sadie, the Cowboy and I went to Barnes Park, where the last of the color lit the trails. Here and there autumn mushrooms sprouted. I have no plans to take up wild mushroom gathering, as I have no confidence in my ability to survive it, but I am getting interested in mushroom cultivation. The folks at Island and Wagbo and the MSU Extension have been doing workshops, and Jim Ruster at Mitchell Hill Farm over in Ellsworth has undertaken to keep me from making an idiot of myself. We’ll see.
This is the time when I would be nowhere else. The Writing Studio and Bait Shop perches in a wonderland of gold and bronze and copper. The very air shimmers. Who, me rake?
Torch Lake Views 
bobbie
October 28, 2009
Gerry–I am in total agreement re leaf raking. The leaves blanket the road and ,indeed, it looks like a watercolor “portrait”. Thanks for the great photos. B.
Gerry
October 28, 2009
Thanks for stopping by and joining Rake-free TLT!
uphilldowndale
October 28, 2009
I’ll swear that toadstools cousin has popped up on my lawn today!
Gerry
October 28, 2009
They’re everywhere. The Spore People.
Anna Surface
October 28, 2009
All great series of photos. I especially like the birch tree with the lovely white bark and the last photo with the chair on the deck all covered in autumn leaves.
Gerry
October 28, 2009
Thank you Anna. It’s good to have your company on the deck!
p.j. grath
October 28, 2009
Gerry, don’t you find birch trees wonderfully feminine? They are so beautiful and graceful and yet completely unassuming. I was looking at them today, too. Love your leaf-covered deck!
Gerry
October 28, 2009
I hadn’t thought about it that way before. I love the way birches look, and the fragrance of the wood. I’ve been fascinated by the bark since my mother showed me how to peel a piece of “paper” off the birch and use it to write a message. That was a very, very long time ago.
Nye
October 29, 2009
I like to live at the writing studio and Bait shop, sitting and watching the leaves fall and sipping hot tea!
Gerry
October 29, 2009
It’s not all sipping hot tea, you know, Nye – sometimes it’s building woodfires to keep the pipes from freezing, and always it’s taking the Disreputable Duo for walks at dark-thirty in the morning. Nevertheless, in autumn it is the only place in the world I want to be.
La Mirada Bob
October 29, 2009
Regarding your 10:19 pm remark “That was a very, very long time ago”. It was really just the other day, dear elder daughter.
Gerry
October 30, 2009
I find that “just the other day” is a very elastic category . . . It’s amazing how the telescope of memory works. Or doesn’t. But the love lives on.
centria
October 29, 2009
Everything does look so tender in this post~~I love the leaves on your deck. Will you sweep them off?
Gerry
October 30, 2009
Who, me?