Autumn bonus

May and June were mainly cold and rainy. July and August were mostly hot and humid. But we've been having a wonderful autumn. We've had some frosts; one really hard one at 23 degrees. But we're also having many long stretches of bright blue skies and sunshine, temps in the sixties. I think we had more color in our changing leaves than usual--more red and orange. Most have fallen now and are shuffling underfoot. But up here where we live we have an added autumn bonus. The tamarack trees are turning. They are conifers but not evergreens. Their needles turn golden in the fall. Seeing the golden tamaracks mixed in among their dark green conifer cousins and the white birches is a beautiful sight. Bear and Sadie and I have been walking in the woods twice a day because it is so neat. We know it can not last much longer. Usually our walks are solitary affairs, but one morning last week we ran into two of our neighbors and a bird hunter with his golden lab all on the same morning. The dogs looked good, but I was dressed in a turquoise nightgown, gray flannel pajama bottoms and an orange jacket. Oh, well.