We are half way through October, which has been very warm, almost freakishly warm. Good for the heating bills but odd nonetheless to this native Mainer who is used to crisp autumn weather in October. Clif and I still spend a little time on the patio when he gets home from work, and we keep saying, “We won’t be able to do this much longer.”

I have a friend whose birthday is on October 24, and she maintains that by then it is always too cold to sit on the patio or deck. In the old Maine, she was right. Clif and I are wondering if she’ll be right this year.

Warm or not, October is a month of beauty, of red, orange, and yellow  leaves, of bright blue skies. The light is especially fine—golden and at a slant.

Slowly, I am getting the gardens cut back. Once or twice a week I sweep the driveway, but it is a fool’s errand. Several hours later, more leaves have fallen. I have emptied and scrubbed some flower pots, but we still haven’t had a hard frost, and the coleus remains untouched.

Here are some October pictures of the yard at the little house in the big woods: