"October's Bright Blue Weather" - Not Quite

Sunday, October 18, 2009. We had a few hours of "October's bright blue weather" this morning. Then the clouds came back. I see that Helen Hunt Jackson, the poet who made a poem of that name, grew up in Amherst, Massachusetts. They may have more reliably bright blue Octobers there, than we do here in central Minnesota.

Enough philosophizing. That three-day mattress sale downtown is over now. (I wrote about it in the Sauk Centre Journal Blog.) The street sweeper's been by my house a few times, and it's about two weeks until Halloween. And, that Marian garden between Our Lady of the Angels church and the rectory is just about finished.


The Marian garden by Our Lady of the Angels Church is getting finished, one piece at a time. October 14, 2009.

Halloween's coming up. As I've said before, some households take holiday decorating more seriously than others. One place, near the river, has the biggest single Halloween decoration I can remember seeing: a sort of inflated gateway. "Cute" is an over-used adjective, but it's the only one I can think of to describe the thing just now.


Now that's a Halloween decoration! October 16, 2009.

With the drought this summer, I didn't think we'd have the most spectacular autumn colors this year. Looks like I was right.


October's bright blue weather? October 16, 2009.

My family and I moved to Sauk Centre in early 1986, so in 2011 I'll have lived here a quarter-century. In that time, I've spotted some places in town that tend to have really nice fall colors. Like the yards in these two photos.

Last year they were a real treat.

This year, they're a bit more subdued. Okay: a lot more subdued. The overcast didn't help, but that tree just isn't the bright-red it was last year. Well, there's always next year.


Let's take a closer look. Those trees have been brighter, some other years, but it's still a nice scene. October 16, 2009.

"Spectacular" isn't everything. I think that's a nice, subdued set of colors. That tree's got a beautiful shape.

Then there's this yard. There's a whole lot of color going on there.


They're a chore to rake up, but autumn's leaves put on quite a show. October 16, 2009.

Maybe I'll catch some of "October's bright blue weather" on Monday. Looks like that'll be my last chance for the week. Tuesday through Thursday, we're slated for rain. Then, as a change of pace, the forecast says that Friday it'll be snowing.

Minnesota: Our climate's not boring.