A Most Unusual October!

Hi, everyone!

The first two weeks of October have been warmer than usual!  Some of the plants are confused! The window box impatiens got eaten a week or so ago, but they are growing back and blooming!  The mock orange shrub usually blooms in the spring, but it has more blossoms now!  There is some fall color in the tree leaves, but most of them are still green!  We need colder nights than we’ve been having to get colorful fall leaves.

Over the holiday weekend, Grandma and Grandpa decided they’d better get ready for winter at the bay, anyway.  Grandma took me for one last kayak paddle before the kayaks came upstairs for storage.  We went up Clark Creek to the beaver dam.  There are so many plants growing on the dam that it’s hard to recognize!  There are lots of plants growing along the side of the creek channel, too!  On our way back, Grandma took one last photo from the water of the work on our shoreline.

Uncle Steven took down the work platform on the front of the boathouse so Grandpa could bring the power boat in for the winter.  Then Uncle Steven and Grandpa took the marine rails out of the water and stored them inside the boathouse.  Usually, that’s enough work for one day, but Uncle Steven and Aunt Kara decided to help haul the dock sections, too!  That was a little more difficult than usual because the contractor’s crew had put them in this year.  Some of the support poles were really stuck in the mud!  I helped by keeping the rowboat from floating away when nobody was in it.

James helped Grandma and me move the kayaks around to wash and dry them, then he went back to electronics.  Thomas decided that getting ready for winter meant spending time in his cocoon!  After the dock sections were in, Aunt Kara and Uncle Steven brought the kayaks inside, too!

Because the powerboat was moored outside for some heavy rainstorms, there was water inside all the compartments.  Grandpa opened everything up and ran a fan to dry the boat out.  All the life jackets were damp and needed some time in the sunshine before we packed them away.  Grandma took advantage of the nice drying weather to scrub the seat cushions for the chairs that spend outside time on the porch.

Once the power boat was in the boathouse, Uncle Steven helped Grandpa put the work platform back up right behind the boat.  Grandma and I helped Grandpa put up some more of the trim strips that frame the boathouse door.  We helped repair the frame for the plastic that drops down to protect the boat from birds, too.

On the Tuesday after the holiday weekend, Grandma and I did the final hike in the Perinton Trails passport.  The temperature was supposed to get into the high seventies by the afternoon, so we went in the morning!  Horizon Hill is the highest spot in our town, and one of the first places that had developed hiking trails.  We had a lovely, sunny day to hike!

We took the orange trail up through the woods to the scenic viewpoint.  I always like trails with bridges and boardwalks!  In places, the tree canopy was dense enough that nothing was growing around the trees.  In other places, the woods were more open.  The destination scenic view for the passport hike was a pretty, grassy open area, but the growth around it was tall enough that we couldn’t see landscape, just sky!

Grandma said we had time to take the longer trail loop to another scenic overlook, and I’m glad we did!  I made some mushroom friends along the way, and we really could see scenery from the end of the trail at Woodcliff Lodge.

We took the blue “short cut” trail back down Horizon Hill.  Near the end of the trail, we found the side trail to Nancy’s Glen.  At first, I thought this glen was named for my friend Nancy-san.  Grandma said it was named for a different Nancy, but she was a  friend to both Nancy-san and Grandma.  Grandma said a pretty, quiet place with a little waterfall was a very fitting tribute to her spirit!

Last Friday, the carpet cleaners came!  Grandma and Grandpa had to get ready by moving as much furniture off the carpets that needed cleaning as they could.  I helped bag the bottoms of the drapes to get them out of the way!

The carpet cleaners came in a truck that is like a big vacuum cleaner on wheels!  They had very long hoses that reach to the farthest room!  As they worked back from there, they removed sections of the hose.  The carpet was damp right after cleaning, so I was glad it was warm enough to have the windows open to help things dry out!

This past weekend, we had rainy, chilly weather.  Today it’s warmer than usual again, but the nighttime temperatures are supposed to be lower this week than last.  In the meantime, some of our leaves are drying up and dropping without ever changing to fall colors.  Our outside chairs with cushions are inside until next spring!

Because we had a mild spring, all the nut trees produced a lot of nuts!  Grandma says walking in the back yard is like walking on ball bearings because of all the acorns!  That’s making my chipmunk and squirrel friends very happy!

Love, Lion-san