About 2 hours after I took this photo at my parents' farm, a major windstorm blew through, likely knocking off most of the leaves. The storm raced through most of the east coast, and many areas lost power.

At my cabin, the leaves blew past horizontally, with branches hitting the roof, rolling down its steep pitch and then onto the ground, scaring the animals. Surprisingly, I didn't lose electricity or suffer any damage. I've seen lots of downed trees nearby, though.

With the change from daylight savings time, my early morning walks are suddenly brighter. This morning, the sky was already the color of steel when Dog and I left the cabin. Shortly, I saw the first pale color in the east and turned off the headlamp. Tomorrow, I'll try and remember that I don't really need the headlamp at all. By the time our walk was over this morning, it was daylight.

And then I remembered that in 2007 the time change will come November 15 (or thereabouts) instead of the end of October, so these few brief weeks of morning daylight regained will not come again probably in the rest of my lifetime. By November 15, this respite of morning daylight will be gone as the earth races towards the shortest day of the year.

Despite the fierce winds of Saturday night, not all the leaves have fallen yet. I'd guess that 50% of the leaves are still on the trees. I am surprised by this, as I fully expected the vast majority of them to be wrenched from the trees by the 50-60 mph wind that blew through. The fall colors that do remain are much faded. The leaves are all an orangey brown and no longer brilliant shades of yellows and reds.