More beautiful days

Fall continues to give us some wonderful days. We had some rain earlier in the week, and my rain gauge checked in at just over three inches. Yesterday, Addie and I took a trip to Duluth. Perhaps I am biased, but I thought that the best fall color was in Cook County. We saw bright reds and oranges on the maple trees, sunny yellows on the ash trees, and just the beginnings of color on the birch and aspen. Surprisingly, in a few places on the Trail, I noticed that some of the tamarack trees are blazing their own bright gold. Usually this happens in October, after many of the deciduous trees have already dropped their leaves. I really enjoy seeing this conifer that annually drops its needles. The leaves further south of us seemed to be drying and withering without displaying much color. This sometimes happens up here, too.

Here is the latest report from Alaska:

Greg writes, "Tuesday on the school trip we traveled about a hundred miles down the Yukon to Coal Creek Camp. That evening, Marlis, Ma and I made spaghetti dinner for the group. Lana brought a big bag of meat from a Dall Sheep her mom had shot as well as a bag of shaggy mane mushrooms. We cooked them up and set them in front of the kids after first getting our share. The plate was empty in seconds. After clean-up a group of us sat out watching Northern lights and shooting stars. The lights were dancing all across the sky from East to West, with only some in the North. Lots of green and some purple.
The next day while the kids were collecting their water samples, Elva, Ma and I panned for gold, but found no color. Earlier in the day Paul, Randy and I were panning and found a few flakes. Not enough to buy a cup of coffee, though. "

The three fellows, Greg, Robert and Paul, plan to leave Sharlene and Jim in Eagle sometime this weekend, and head off to see other parts of Alaska. As I hear more of the plan, I will post it here.

The moon will be full tomorrow, on Addie's fourteenth birthday. Many folks have been seeing some wonderful northern lights, but I am afraid that we haven't stayed up late enough to see them! With a full moon, it is even harder, as the sky is so filled with light. We'll keep an eye out, just in case.