fall

Chasing fall colors in Wisconsin

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We’ve just returned from a delightful weekend of fall color in northern Wisconsin.  After raining on Friday, the weather was cool and cloudy on Saturday morning and we ventured to Copper Falls State Park outside of Mellen, Wisconsin.  The colors of gold, green, red, orange, and yellow were all visible throughout the woods.  It was a treat to the eyes and to the senses, as there is most certainly a distinct smell of fall in the air also.  Later in the day the sun burned through the clouds and these same  vibrant shades of autumn were splashed against a bright and clear blue sky with warm sunshine.  Although it’s hard to think of summer as being behind us now, the beauty and brightness of fall seems to be our reward before we delve into the white of winter.

There was a programming glitch with my blog entry from last week.  Those of you who normally get an email when I’ve posted a new blog entry were left without notification.  Sorry!  You might want to go directly to my blog to read the entry from last Sunday —  it was all about a very joyous wedding celebration in our family.  Go to http://www.lindastaatsphoto.wordpress.com and scroll down to the entry dated September 26, 2010, “A wedding in the family.”  (Sorry for the mixup!).

A hike on the prairie

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This past weekend found us traveling south to Kansas to celebrate the Thanksgiving holiday with my family.  Looking for a way to enjoy the unseasonably warm and sunny weather, we ventured west from the Kansas City area to Manhattan, Kansas.  After driving into the Flint Hills we came upon the Konza Prairie, a preserve of The Nature Conservancy that is managed as a biological station by Kansas State University.  The late fall colors were golden across the 8600 acres of the prairie.    It was a joy to hike through this area surrounded by a sea of grasses blowing in the wind, as they must have done when the early settlers came through this same land hundreds of years ago.

Harvest and Thanksgiving

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Yesterday I was south of the Cities near the town of New Trier, Minnesota.  This is a beautiful farming area with an abundance of rolling hills.  The harvest has been late this year, hampered by rain and cooler temperatures.  But on this unusually sunny and warm day there was much activity in the fields — something for which many farmers were quite thankful.  As we head into the week of Thanksgiving I’m focusing on the bounty of my life and all those things I have to be thankful for:   a roof over my head and a job, plenty of good food to eat, good health, good friends, good family, and a wonderful freedom we enjoy in this country.  May we all realize the good fortune we have.

A personal bicycling milestone

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1500 mile ride 2009 PS0610_StaatsThis past week marked a new milestone for me, one I wouldn’t have imagined at the beginning of the year.  On Wednesday I took advantage of a warm late-fall afternoon to complete an 18-mile bicycle ride on the Gateway Trail on the outskirts of Saint Paul.  By completing this ride I have now ridden 1,500 miles this year — an amount that far exceeds anything I’ve ever done.  All those miles have been filled with new sights, adventures, and shared conversations.  The ones early in the year were done in training for the Bike Across Kansas, and the ones at the end of the summer and into the fall were for the exercise and the enjoyment of riding.  I can’t predict how many miles I’ll traverse next year, but I know these 1,500 miles have plenty of enjoyable memories to carry me through the winter and have me looking forward to new bicycling adventures starting next spring.

A late evening’s moment in time

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Blowing grasses 51547_Staats

Stop from your hurried day and slow down.  Stay in one place, calm your mind.  Pay attention to what is around you and in front of you:  at the end of this late autumn day the sun is slowing sliding to the horizon, having lost its earlier summer warmth.  The slough in front of me is filled with grasses and cattails, and the wind is rushing across them causing them to dance to its rhythm.  The sound of the wind is only challenged by the large flock of geese that has taken wing and is rising from the water.  The cacophony of their honking is carried across this same wind to my ears.  On this evening I am filled with joy, gratitude, and wonder for everything that has come together for this short moment in time.