It has been an interesting fall. Seems warmer and wetter to me than past years at this time. At 9 this morning our weather station (an old Taylor thermometer mounted outside the kitchen window) read mid 50s, in the shade! I didn't believe it until I let the dog out and felt the mild air.

By the way, my mother worked at Taylor Instruments in Rochester, New York, during World War II. She commuted from her family home in Batavia when there wasn't 18 feet of snow. Winters in that neck of the woods, back then, were no laughing matter. I recall tunneling out of the house during a visit to mother's final family home just south of Buffalo. Snows off the lake could be tremendous!

I digress.

I think the warmer, wetter fall has dampened the brilliance of leaf color here on the coast which is where I spend most of my time these days. The hard woods along the shores are more muted, maybe because of the lack of frost and/or the moderating effect of the ocean. Who knows? What I do know is that there seem to be fewer bright colors at the water's edge. That brings me to today's image, which, as you can see, is not on the water.

During a recent errand to deliver some photo files, just after a big rain, this scene presented itself. And I, of constant vigilance, reached for my trusty, always present traveling companion. I am rather partial to the less brilliant in all things. Wet tree leaves and darkened tree trunks appeal to me. And now we are coming into the season of the golden oaks, which I love. After the peak of color is my favorite time for foliage, even if it is a reminder of what's to come, when the red line on our Taylor will not travel as far up its glass tube.

FYI ... Our rhodies and azeleas have blooms!