Skip Day, Autumn Break

[lydamorehouse]

 
Image: sunlight through yellow maples at Afton State Park

Yesterday, Shawn woke up with a migraine. She gets these a lot, but there must have been something about this one because, even though she decided to go to PT, the rest of the day was a wash.  The PT was even touch and go. She and I sat in bed a couple of extra hours debating the merits of going or not. She felt that having not quite mastered the most recent exercise meant that she should postpone and reschedule. That sounded valid to me, but then I also asked what would be the benefit in going... and she talked herself into the idea that maybe the physical therapist would have some mini-steps she could practice so that she *could* figure out the exercise. 

So, I grabbed a bit of extra coffee for the road, turned off the coffee maker, and we headed out.

I sort of thought that this late start would be it--the end of a nice little break to the rushing, workday routine. But, lately Shawn and I have been taking detours on the way to work to look at the early morning sunlight through the golden, orange, and blazing red maple leaves. At this point, Sunday's wind took down a lot of the showiest displays, but there are still plenty of trees here and there that are in their full glory.  At one point, when we were admiring a tree, I jokingly said (as I often do, keep in mind) that if she was feeling poorly, she could just skip and we could go on a leaf peeping adventure. Maybe a drive down to Red Wing? Maybe all the way to Wabasha?

She wasn't sure she was up for that, but then, to my utter surprise, she said, "But how about Afton State Park?"

So we went. 

Afton never has really spectacular fall colors, though. Afton is largely prairie, oak savvana, and oak woodland.



Image: The Wisconsin Bluffs from the Minnesota side of the St. Croix River, very oak, much brown.

But it was a really, really lovely sunny morning and the view down on the picnic area's dock was absolutely spectacular.


Image: the azure expanse of sky and river on the St. Croix (from Aspen State Park)

All this touching grass, though? Very much exhausted the migrainer. So, we came home, had a little bit of a lunch and faceplanted until dinner time.  I would normally be chagrined to have slept so long in the afternoon, but between the gig last night and the fact that Mason was flying home from Oklahoma City at 12:30 AM (that's in the morning!) I figured it was fine. I was, in fact, able to stay awake until he was deplaning around 1:00 am. 

For those of you just tuning in, Mason has a romantic partner, Jas, down in Oklahoma. They are doing the long distance thing very well so far, but they do like to punctuate it with actual togetherness as much as they can afford. Next planned trip is to try to coax Jas up here for... Minnesota WINTER.

Wish Mason luck. I think he's gonna need it.

Comments

[allezhop]

Oh, that is SO beautiful!

[lydamorehouse]

It really is. It was such a lovely day yesterday, too. So much sun.

[pameladean]

Oh, I love Afton! We often go the other way, to the increasingly restored prairie, which has some amazing colors in very small increments -- sumac, tiny fruit trees from when the location was a farm or farms, and of course the various colors of the big bluestem, which doesn't even go blue until the dead of winter but passes through a bunch of red at the bottom and gold overall. Earlier in the season, there are small oaks and sugar maples at the top of the bluff and around the parking area that can have spectacular colors.

The river views alone are worth the trip, though.

More locally, I'm guiltily enjoying the fact that a late, warm fall has allowed the Norway maples to turn gold rather than dropping their leaves while they're still green. The light on my entire block is transformative.

[lydamorehouse]

YES.

I wish I could figure out how to attach a picture to a comment because we have a maple out front that is in its FULL GLORY for the first time in a long time thanks to this slow autumn. It usually drops partly green-gold leaves onto snow. This year it's just a stunning gold, particularly, as you note when the sun hits just right.

[sabotabby]

Good luck to him.

That is some stunning landscape.

[lydamorehouse]

Thanks!

And, isn't it just?