September 22nd, 2007
i’m seeing red
I’m seeing red — leaves, that is. The Red Maple on the front lawn has just begun to change colour. Soon, the nearby Sugar Maple (not pictured) will be glowing golden-orange. The High-bush Cranberries are a deep reddish-purple. While out for my evening walk in the woods yesterday, I was thinking of how the trees really make a statement about their identity in autumn. In summer, the greens meld together in one mass. However, in autumn, each tree becomes an individual, some yellow, some orange, some red, and some with a mix from that palette. By the way, the above view was taken while I was standing on the rejuvenated front porch this morning. It doesn’t really look that crooked — that’s just the camera’s opinion. Actually, it’s pretty square and level. The steps go off to the right, and yes, that’s the clothesline looped around one of the posts at one end, and leading to the Red Maple at the other. We don’t stand on ceremony too much around this place. I guess you could say that just about everything around here serves at least one or two useful purposes.
Anyhow, after a week of things looking like Humpty Dumpty had fallen off the wall, I finally got the porch back together and painted by yesterday afternoon. I was just musing to a friend that it took more time to replace boards, and sand, scrape, and paint the rest, than it did to build the whole porch new in the first place about 15 or so years ago. The first time round only took me a couple of days. Having done a fair bit of house renovation over the years, it’s probably safe to say that building from new doesn’t take anywhere near the time that restoration takes, especially if you’re trying to preserve original materials.
The other red I saw this morning was the red sky at dawn. The sky looked like this yesterday morning as well. When I was a kid spending summers at our cottage up on the Ottawa River, dawn and dusk skies could be just spectacular. We used to quote that old saying, Red sky in morning, sailor’s warning. Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. By this morning’s sky, it seems likely that we’ll see a storm, and in fact, there’s one in the forecast for later today (moderately high winds and a possible thunderstorm). That’s okay — we need some rain around here. The soil is extremely dry, and the local watershed authority has just issued a low water level bulletin for our region. So, it seems the porch got finished up and painted just in time!
September 22nd, 2007 at 9:11 am
Nice job on the porch, Bev! When I first saw the Red Maple in the photo, I thought the red looked very much likie the red that is now waning in the crepe myrtles in my yard…almost like those hues of red in my yard are migrating north.
September 22nd, 2007 at 9:44 am
Your porch looks great, bev. Great job. I think Roger would agree with you that restoration does take much longer than building with new materials. It’s always worth the time though. We’re having an early fall here. Colors in the leaves, and they fall to the ground now when the wind blows. I hope you get the rain you need.
September 22nd, 2007 at 7:46 pm
Oh Bev! How I’ve missed dropping by your blog. Sabrina, the grasshopper laying eggs (in your porch!) the Ambush Bugs (my hubby can’t BELIEVE them :0) I’ve got a lot of catching up to do. Though I can only check in sporadically – it’s nice to know you’re as dependable as dawn following the night. The sun rises. All is well.
September 22nd, 2007 at 8:27 pm
John – Thanks! We don’t have crepe myrtles here, but I’ll have to make a point of looking for them in future. A tree that always seems neat is the Sweetgum that I’ve seen in Oregon in autumn.
–
robin – Thanks! Yes, I’m sure Roger would agree — I’ve seen how he recycles building materials. It always takes more time to carefully salvage materials and repair something rather than just tossing stuff in the garbage. I have a very difficult time ever throwing away even the tiniest little stick of wood, so never begrudge the extra work of restoration. We never did get the rain today but it looks like we might get some by Tuesday.
–
Cathy – I’m glad that you had enough time to drop by for a visit! I know you’re really busy right now, but it’s nice to find that you managed to catch up on soem blog reading! I guess I may be dependable, although lately it seems like I may be slacking off a bit. Just so busy with outdoor work around the farm and sometimes find it difficult to think of anything much to write about except, “I spent all day working on stuff.” (-:
September 24th, 2007 at 7:39 am
I just noticed the maples in my neighborhood beginning to color up late last week. We’re not as far along in that department as you are. I love the colors that you got in the sky shot.