Now it's fall

Summer's over, 
Now it's fall;
Just the nicest
Time of all.

- Lois Lenski

One of the benefits to moving to tropical Michigan, is that we are barely further north than we were in Iowa City. In fact, if we had moved to Kalamazoo, we would be pretty much at the same latitude. Instead, we are close to the latitude of Waterloo.

As such, autumn comes later, and stays longer, and spring some earlier, and also stays longer. I can't speak for Karen or Knute, but these are my two favorite seasons (followed closely by winter and summer). I don't like Smarch at all. (Look it up.)

Several weeks ago, when my parents were here, we took a walk and came upon a Wooly Bear caterpillar with a long brown (middle) stripe. Tradition holds that this augurs a long winter. This guy's stripe was the length of a dime's diameter (17.91 mm according to Wikipedia).

And while the family in Minnesota is preparing for winter (and the family in northern Minnesota is starting to experience it), we are enjoying what I recognize as mid-October in mid-November. Today, we took a walk through the school woods near our house.

The woods are a curious mix, with an area that was clearly a plantation red pine (Minnesota's state tree!)¹ with a large area of white oak (Illinois, Connecticut, and Maryland)² and some red oak (New Jersey) and aspen (I'm not sure if it is is Populus tremuloides or Populus grandidentata; neither is a state tree). Then there are areas of sumac and other stands of wild raspberries. Local kids have built a number of lean-tos and tree forts in the woods, and I assume Steven will play in those woods as well some day.³

1. The state tree of North Carolina is just the "pine," without reference to species
2. The state tree of Iowa is just the "oak," without reference to species.
3. As I know I will catch it from certain quarters unless I add it, the state tree of California is the "sequoia," AGAIN without reference to species. What an uninspiring trio of states.