A friend up in Perry County called Monday to say I should get right up there before the leaves turned. When I got there on Tuesday, I said, “They look pretty good to me.”
“They’ve started falling today,” he said.
Wednesday was errand-running day, and Wednesday evening brought a cold front with gusty winds and frog-strangling rainfall. Somebody nearby said their rain gauge recorded 2-1/2 inches of the wet stuff. Mother’s yard was covered with fallen walnuts
The Jackson City Park leaves were still pretty, but the colors weren’t as vibrant as they were the day before.
Broke my rule
I broke my rule of “shoot it when you see it, otherwise the magic is liable to leak out.”
The temperatures were in the high 60s and felt great, but the color wasn’t as nice as two days ago. Click on the photos to make them larger.
Road to Tower Rock
The drive to Altenburg Tuesday was spectacular. Thursday, it was merely “nice.” The trees on the tiny road leading to Tower Rock were still pretty when the light was behind them.
Orange with persimmons
Perhaps the greatest victims of the high winds and rain were the super-sweet persimmons at the Tower Rock parking area. The ground and rocks were orange with squished persimmons and buzzing with bees. Persimmons from two trees on the south end of the picnic area have smaller, tougher fruit. I picked up about a pint of ripe, but not splattered pieces to take home to Mother as part of her extended Birthday Season.
Adding to my disappointment was a rise in the river levels. The river is at 9 feet and going up, two feet higher than the 7 feet it needs to be in order to walk out to The Rock.
The pictures of the foliage there are predictably spectacular, as of course espying the countryside first-hand would be if I were in Southeast Missouri instead of Buffalo, but what really caught my attention and pulled my soul home was your mention of persimmons. I was a wee lad when I had my first taste of the fruit (after the first hard frost!) on my uncle’s farm west of Gordonville. The tree is unknown here in Western New York and the rest of the Northeast except to folks who’ve traveled far afield into its range and gotten off the beaten path. But after all these years I can still taste the savory sweetness of that country delicacy.
The leaves were in full flower or well bright colored anyway when I drove back to Florida the last two days. In the mountians near Chattanouga they were on fire and the trip for the 150 miles of so on I-24 was wonderful. This is one of the delghts of the midwest, fall foilage.
I did find the persimmons on the south side of the tower rock road and you are right they are a little tougher and not too tastey. So next time I will try the other side…Thanks Rich for your memories on the persimmons…
You know, you left SE MO right before you could walk out and get back up here right after you can’t. You think someone is telling you to stay on the shore?