An Official Apology

I'm not usually a rain-hater. In fact, if I don't have anyplace to go, I love the rain...until this year. There was just so dang much of it getting misdelivered here from all those places out west that were experiencing drought.

Ah, but sweet November 2009 stepped up and offered us bright, beautiful, golden days of reprieve. November came like Nature's apology with 50 degree temps and that yellow tinted autumn sun. I know that "uncharacteristic" weather can be a little freaky and off-putting, but not this time. Since June, July and August were so damp and gray, we water-logged denizens of the Big Level will happily take a good, long Indian Summer even in November. No complaints. So, here's my official apology to the Eleventh Month for calling her "November the Gray" in a previous post.

And as long as I'm "clearing the air," and being all Polyanna, and retracting all of my negative statements: here's a shot I took at the Tionesta Scenic Area. There are some big honkin' trees out there, some of them 400 years old. In this photo, you see a standard-sized notebook atop a standard-sized walking stick, leaning up against a very non-standard-sized hemlock. The thing is enormous. How did this 2,000 acre patch of trees escape the axe? Definitely worth seeing! (And if you're looking at my walking stick and wondering why the tip is sharpened into a pike... Well, it's not because I'm paranoid. It has to do with an ill-fated camping trip this past August where we had to prop a tarp over our tent because of all the blasted rain.)

Lessee, what other libelous statements have I made in this blog? Oh, yeah, the Mutant Pear Tree! Hmm. Nope, I'm going to let that statement stand...