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Annual Autumn Fest
Because of rain two weekends ago, we postponed our organization's annual autumn festival until Sunday afternoon, October 27. Though it didn't end up raining on the date the event was originally scheduled, the sky that day was still mostly overcast and chilly; in contrast, last Sunday offered a perfect fall weekend, so I'm glad we waited.
The hayrides are popular with children, their parents, and their grandparents. Our wagon will accommodate about 25 people for a 45-minute ride. The first two rides weren't full, but we were stuffed into the wagon on the third ride; I much prefer the more spacious rides.
You can see from the images that the native grasses are at their peak right now - tawny and beautiful - but the trees in the background remain dull green or muted shades of tan and brown. Our forests are never as vibrant as the New England forests on October calendars because we don't have many maples in our woods, but this year's colors will not be among the best regardless.
There's a 10-acre private in-holding in our grasslands: a gentleman's horse farm. While the in-holding breaks up the sweep of the grasslands, it nonetheless adds an aesthetic accent to the landscape.
Following the hayrides, children had an opportunity to decorate pumpkins and have their faces painted with Halloween themes. A few kids took advantage of early leaf-fall to dive into a pile and have a great time.
10 comments:
Looks like fun. We sometimes have good color -- the picture I use at the top of our blog is a good example -- but this year it's not looking too hopeful.
Mark: I've become a cynical old curmudgeon and I grouse about anything and everything that's not part of my normal routine, so I grit my teeth and prepare to make nice during events like the hayrides. But, guess what? I usually have a really good time--and did last Sunday afternoon, too. Kali (who joined me for the last hayride) even said to me afterward, "Scott, you're really good with the members."
I enjoy looking at your blog banner, Mark, because of the great autumn foliage. But, like your woods, this will not be "one for the books" this year here in the northern Piedmont.
Your fall festival looks like a lot of fun, and the kids playing in the leaves were certainly having fun. If your leaves are like mine this year, those dull green leaves aren't going to get any prettier--they will just turn browner and then fall down.
I love the photo of the grass with the farm in the background--really evocative. The shots of the kids are great, too.
It looks like a wonderful fall day for a hayride there. The colors look muted, but still lovely. We have some color here, but nothing like the vibrant hillsides and mountains of New England. I sometimes forget how amazing those colors are and begin to think our colors look pretty good, until someone posts a photo from Maine or Vermont, or even North Carolina. Oh my.
Our recent gales have done for most of our autumn colour. So glad to see that some children still know what to do with the autumn!
Carolyn: I'm not expecting any miraculous "color up" this fall. And, the kids did have a great time playing in the leaves, and i really enjoyed watching them.
Packrat: I took that image while I was in the haywagon, so the angle's a little strange and the split-rail fence separating the farm from the grasslands shows through the grasses a bit, but all in all the image gives a good idea of our topography and land cover, which i admit is pretty appealing.
Robin Andrea: Yeah, pretty muted colors this year, but we've had some pretty spectacular autumn displays in the past. Heck, we can live with one year of "substandard" foliage. And, as I said, our treescape is never as spectacular as that in New England and the southern Appalachians where there are more maples.
John: We're supposed to get some gusty, rainy weather starting tonight, Halloween (too bad for the children, but maybe it will hold off until they're done "trick-or-treating") and tomorrow, which may bring down the majority of the leaves. Then I can start to rake them up, and may leave a pile for the kids to enjoy this weekend!
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