Juxtaposition

 

It is that time of year when autumn colors and plants sit next to summer hangovers. I will have to take my geraniums into the garage next week overnight Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday if the forecast for frost is right. The fothergilla has peaked in color this week.

Autumn colors have been somewhat muted or missing this fall. My backyard maple mostly turned brown with leaves dropping. The maple next to my neighbor's condo is fairly bright though.

Down below the sumac is a single daisy.

In the newsfeed on my Galaxy tablet there is rarely current events. I guess because I searched and touched on stories about decluttering and best buys at stores like Costco, Trader Joe's, Aldi's, I get that sort of thing in the feed. I read a story about Aldi's fall chicken salad which is an upgrade from the regular chicken salad. It has nuts and cranberries. I bought some yesterday which we ate on a croissant. It is very good. Supposedly it will disappear from the store shelf after the holiday season. 

As the weather heads for cold temperatures, critters are starting to look for warmth. I don't know what this bug is, but I was careful not to let it in my house. I saw one like it in the garage a few weeks ago where I had the geraniums sheltering one night. Then a few days ago when I took something next door to my neighbors, I saw one sitting on their porch chair.

I bought a puzzle at the Friends of the Library book sale at North Webster Thursday morning. I am going to start working on it this weekend. It is a 1000-piecer though when I prefer doing smaller puzzles.

I washed my duster/robe today, and I hung my winter bathrobe in my closet. I wore a short-sleeved top today so I could get my flu shot at Walgreen's, but this afternoon I have on a sweater. I need to think about bringing in the cushions from the porch rocking chairs. I cling to the hope that we might have a sneak Indian summer day yet in our autumn, but most likely my porch sitting days are over.

Potawatomi Wildlife Park

 We have been wanting to get out in the autumn beauty. Yesterday morning in lovely weather we walked some trails at Potawatomi Wildlife Park. This was more of a symphony in yellow than red or orange, but it was pleasant being in the fresh air.

There are several trails about 1-5 miles long and all loops so you don't have to backtrack; you can print a map from its website or there are some at the start of the trails. Guideposts and maps to look at are throughout the park, also. 

The park property is along the edge of part of the Tippecanoe River.

 There is also a small pond which most of the trails skirt. It appears that students come to see the Nature Center and eat lunch at the Eagle's Nest Gazebo.

We did not meet any other people on the trails. As we were leaving, a couple came to start their own walk. Part of the park is a dark sky observation area, and the Warsaw Astronomy Club sometimes has sighting events for the public.

There were some hints of red.

A lot of leaves were already on the ground along with various nuts: walnuts, hickory nuts, acorns.

Some of the walnuts had fallen off the trees and sunk into the shallow part of the pond.

Despite the term wildlife in the park name, we saw no animals. I could hear birds, especially blue jays. We saw an egret in the pond.

My husband said he saw a different kind of bird swoop down and fly away with a fish. He wondered if it might be an osprey. There was a platform for a nest but no nest.

We noticed lots of duck nesting boxes. No ducks though.

There are a few small islands in the pond. At one place there is a bridge to cross over to one of the islands.

The park is privately owned, accepting donations, but not charging a fee. It is open dawn to dusk. It has restrooms. 

Near the entrance was a cabin, but the road was roped off. We did not attempt to park and look inside.

According to the nature center, there are some nice wildflowers in the spring. It was a little muddy in some places; I would recommend good shoes or boots. Definitely not sandals, though it was warm enough yesterday to wear sandals. 

 

 

 

Swap Shop, Ebay, Shots, More

 

About 2 weeks ago Grace Village had its autumn Swap Shop. I picked up two items: an adult coloring book and a box of 3 Salonpas pain relief patches. The coloring pictures are of bugs, birds, butterflies. I am getting in the mood to color again, but with Bible study, choir, and Winona Literary Club, it will probably be December before I have time to do that. I tried the Salonpas. It did give my lower back some relief and more importantly the adhesive did not give me little sores like the previous lidocaine patches I had used. 

I currently have a listing on eBay. It has been a few years since I sold anything on that platform. Things have changed quite a bit. There is no listing fee as long as you don't exceed 250 per month. Payment now goes through eBay which means a buyer can use most credit cards and Paypal. In the olden days, most of my buyers sent a money order direct to me or used Paypal. Ebay sends your profits to your bank account so I had to register my credit union account with them.

 You can add lots of photos to your listing without paying extra. For all of these added "benefits", the commission fee is higher, about twice what I paid before. You have to give eBay your SS number as the government will tax profits of $600 or more in most cases. How to define profit is fuzzy; since I am selling two childhood dolls, I have no realistic base for determining profit. My dolls won't sell for that much anyway. I listed my 2 1950's Vogue Ginny dolls plus clothes.

About 2 1/2 weeks ago my husband and I got the latest COVID vaccine. He went ahead and got his flu shot at the same time. I didn't want two shots at the same time so I will probably get my flu shot next week. 

A frost is predicted for Sunday night into Monday morning. My little mums are pretty much done, but I may take my geraniums into the garage to protect them. I may try to keep them a few more weeks since they have new blooms coming. We put our bird feeder up a few weeks ago. Since this week we have juncos. They are nice little birds, but we are their winter home so that reminds me that colder weather is not that far off. 

Yesterday we had our carpeting cleaned by Cook's out of North Manchester. The technicians Brian and Allan we have had before. They are Amish and super polite and respectful. I think it has been two years since our last cleaning. They both have much longer beards than I remember. It is always a bit of a hassle because we move some of the smaller lighter furniture and floor lamps into the garage or sunroom. We also move the dining table and chairs into the sunroom so the area rug can be cleaned. This time my husband waited on moving the dining table until the men arrived. It is getting too much to move such a heavy item on our own. We waited until this morning to put everything back in place (except the dining table which Brian helped move back yesterday) and to remove the blocks and pads that had been put under the loveseat and the chairs. We wanted to make sure the carpet was dry. We had fans running most of yesterday. It is good to have the cleaning done. 

Odd Combination

 This was homecoming weekend for Grace College. As part of the program, they incorporated a concert by Symphony of the Lakes.

It was in the Winona Heritage Room (formerly known as Rodeheaver Auditorium). We learned about it through the Grace promotional email for homecoming. It was open to the public, however, and advertised in the local newspaper. You had to buy tickets from Wagon Wheel which oversees the orchestra. 

The program was titled Goin' Home. I really enjoyed Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95. The second movement is known as Going Home.

 After intermission, the 2023 winner of the Young Artists Competition played with the orchestra the 3rd movement of Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 2 in Minor, Op. 21. Chloe Park's age was not given, but she must be in high school as the competition is open to middle school and high school students. She played a difficult piece very well. 

The Symphony decided to end with the No Name Quartet, a gospel quartet from the area. Several of its members were graduates of Grace College. Before they sang, they mentioned this was the first time in 20 years of singing that they had sung with an orchestra. I would say that they should have stuck with their recorded backgrounds. It was a very odd combination of gospel quartet and symphonic orchestra. Several of the songs the quartet did were with recorded background. That sounded normal. The orchestra background seemed very strange, especially the last song Packin' Up. It was a cacophony of hurried mushy sound and you could not make out the words of the song. 

Still, it was a nice evening out.