Entering October

A sunny autumn day yesterday (30 September), and I took advantage of it for a walk into town and back for an errand. As always, trying to "combine business with pleasure" - or the other way round! (My "business" this time was to get a couple of things from the pharmacy before the prescription expired.)

 

 

 On the way back I passed by an even older cemetery (closer to the city centre) than the one I usually walk in. I only passed it on the outside of the wall, but spotted this 'tricolor' tree whose bottom branches were still green, while the top of it was all red.

Another view of treetops from the same cemetery.

And a young Rowan tree about half way on my way home.
With red leaves as well as red berries!

 

Home is a less peaceful place than usual these days, at least on weekdays, as the project of turning the old football field nearby into a park is now fully under way... 

These two photos were snapped one afternoon last week when I happened to be passing while the workers were on a break. Except for a break now and then for coffee or lunch or whatever, they're pretty much "at it" all day now - and very noisily. They've dug up the whole field and are putting new layers of gravel and sand and soil on top. I think most of the noise and vibrations just now are to do with flattening it all out again with heavy machines running back and forth... A tiresome constant background noise throughout the day, which also penetrates closed windows. We're having another fine autumn day today, but just now I can't escape by going for a walk, as I'm waiting for a delivery of groceries...

... Ah, a machine just stopped and it became all quiet... For a blissful minute...

I keep telling myself that it's temporary, though - and even if I'd have preferred the old (and usually empty!) field to be left alone, after all it's better that they turn it into a park than if they had decided to build more apartment blocks... (I suspect the ground there is not the right kind of foundation for building more houses on, though.)

The photo above is from 25 September last year - and was my chosen picture for October in my own photo calendar for 2026. (Just now I'm not sure why, as there's not all that much autumn colours in it!)

...

To end with some good news, the blog list on my side-bar seems (at last!) to be updating properly again, since yesterday. While I've noted here and there that others seem to have got theirs fixed much sooner, I was beginning to fear mine would remain "stuck in the past" forever... But it seems one should never give up hope - even with things like that!! :) 

Late October

 

These are two different huge old horse chestnut trees, growing a hundred meters or so apart in the cemetery. As they are the same kind of tree, I can't help but wonder why one is still holding on to most of its leaves while the other one has already dropped all but a few! (But I'm not expecting anyone to have the answer...)

I don't know what kind of tree this is.

These are larches, which are "deciduous conifers". Unlike spruces and pines that stay green all year round (and are much more common here), these loose their needles in winter.

A display of late autumn colours along the railway (photo taken from a bridge for pedestrians and cyclists over the railway that I cross almost daily). 

Tomorrow, daylight saving time ("summer time") ends here. From experience I predict that  I'll welcome getting back to "normal" in the mornings, but that it will take me a while to get used to it suddenly getting dark an hour earlier in the afternoon... (And as usual, I wish they'd stop the whole nonsense of changing the clock twice a year, and keep the same time all year round!)

Weekend Street/Reflections

Another autumn day of the magic, foggy, still and colourful kind here. I walked into town and ended up snapping around 50 more autumnal photos. As it's Friday and time for Weekend Street/Reflections, I made my selection in this post according to that theme. 

Fog & Summer Leftovers

Sunny one day, wet and foggy the next - that's typical of October as well. A foggy day has its own fascination, though - everything seems kind of muted (colour as well as sound).

(If anyone is wondering what they are doing, they're playing boules - I think.)

The butterfly season is over, I'm afraid, even if there are still a few flowers to be found...

“Fall comes with different colors to challenge a green Summer”
― Neamat Alishiryan 

Golden October

 

“I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.”
― L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gable