more fall notes

Well, I guess that little cold snap was enough to trigger some changes. The tallows are showing more color today and the pecan in the adjacent yard is turning yellow. The ones in my yard are still green though with a few clumps of yellow. The altheas are turning yellow and dropping their leaves. The gingkos are still green though perhaps not quite as green as yesterday.

It's overcast and humid today. Another cold front is supposed to move in later and bring us a 'measurable' amount of rain. So far we've only gotten an occasional minute or two of sprinkle or drizzle. This time of year it's a constant battle between the north and the south, the storm fronts being the field of battle between the warm gulf winds and the cold arctic air. Cold for a few days, warm for a few days. Eventually though the arctic fronts will come in closer together until they finally beat back the warm weather for good and it will be winter.

Here's another picture of the confederate rose which is not a rose at all but a mallow, cousin to the hibiscus. The day I took this it had bloomed with dark pink and light pink flowers which only last one day. I had never seen it do that and every day since it's just been the light pink flowers. I wonder if the change in temperatures had something to do with it. There is one confederate rose in town that blooms with pink, white, and pink and white striped flowers. Never seen that before either.

The two birdbaths have been doing a brisk business every morning since it warmed up from the last cold front that moved through. Lots of splashing around going on. This morning when I let the cat in I noticed some movement in a pile of leaves right next to the door up against the side of the house. The cat gave it a glance but she was hungry and came on in. Being the curious sort that I am, I got a stick and poked around in it and flushed out this coral snake that was easily 2' long. It moved along the side of the house to the inside corner where it slipped under the part of the house that is on pier and beam.

I've mentioned before about the wrens and their fascination with our garage-that's-not-a-garage-but-our-shop and their penchant for building nests in there. This morning, one of the wrens came in, screeching just about non-stop while it investigated everything. It poked around in and on the table, the shelving units, the kiln, the recycling, the window sill, the top of the open automatic door, it hopped around on the floor and checked out the old nest on top of the motor housing for the other automatic door, pretty much venting its spleen the whole time, totally unintimidated by my attempts to get a picture. For such little birds, they certainly make a lot of noise.