I hadn’t wanted to mention it, but the leaves are turning.  The old fogey in me is saying, “But the summer has gone so quickly, it can’t be fall already!”  Indeed those lazy, hot days have passed hastily and that season is almost gone!  In just a few days it will be the equinox again with the hours of day the same as the hours of night…and the world is getting ready.  New colors are everywhere, preparing to dazzle us before they fade and leave us with the drab brown of winter.

This winter I am going to go on a search for colors among the shades of neutral.  It will be something to look forward to.

But in the meantime, I’m ready for the wild palette of autumn.  Let ‘er rip!!

I wasn’t that keen on going out this morning but I decided that it wasn’t that bad and I would have the chance to take a new perspective. It’s raining, slowly, gently and steadily.  Perfect for all growing things, except worms.

The sidewalk was strewn with worms escaping the water saturated soil.  Most were fully extended hurrying to find a dry spot.  But everywhere was wet, wet, wet.

I fought the impulse to scoop them up and bring them home with me to my compost heap.  It is a trial effort going on in my garage inside a huge black garbage can.  It could use some worms, I think, though it might be too wet there too.  Worms are supposed to “process” compost like crazy, given the right conditions.

But I couldn’t bear the thought of them flinching and flailing when I picked them off of the sidewalk, their tiny little brains sensing impending doom.  If I had had something to carry them in, I might have done it, this mission of intended mercy.

They will just have to fend for themselves this time…as they always do.

As I passed the backyard of a neighboring house, there were at least ten pigeons fluttering and hovering trying to steal food from a feeder designed for small songbirds.  Those big old birds looked oversized and out of place.  They must have been humiliated.  Where are the ladies with their sacks of cracked corn throwing handouts to the pigeons?  I don’t know but these featherbrains need to find a new feed trough.

All along the trail, I saw huge white mushrooms.  Where did these come from?  They have suddenly appeared in the lawns, under the trees, next to the sidewalks.  If they are disturbed, i.e. pulled up, they return in the same spot.  When they emerge from the ground, they push the soil up above them leaving a dirt pile. My spouse asked me how mushrooms spread and I’m not sure.  By their rhizomes?  By spores?  It warrants further attention.  I thought they only grew in moist, dark places, neither of which describe Boulder.  What other surprises do these fungi hold?

I looked up at the Flatirons and the top was hidden.  It reflected how I felt, with my head in the clouds, was I looking into a sort of mirror?  Obscure and foggy with wisps of haze wafting in the breeze.   Yep, exactly how I felt.