Misty mountain morning

Roundtop is turning green again, after weekend rains provided a half-decent soak. The rain should have raised the level of Beaver Creek somewhat so the adventure camp kids will benefit from that, if not the crayfish and frogs they will probably catch.


The leaves that dried and fell from the extended lack of rain still litter the mountain, making it look a bit odd to my eye. The trees are all green again but when I look at the ground, it is covered with yellow and brown leaves, almost like fall.

Much of the underbrush or yearling plants of the understory didn’t make it through the rainless time, so I can see the ground again and see a bit deeper into the forest than before. When I look through the trees at the leaf-shrouded sky I am trying to tell if the canopy is a bit more open than before. I can’t tell, and if there’s any difference it sure isn’t enough to matter.

What I am noticing is the shortening of the days. The evenings are a bit shorter and the mornings even more so. This morning under a clear sky, it occurred to me that in another week I will probably need a headlamp to start my morning walk with Dog. This morning I thought about it for the first time in months, but I waited for a minute or so and in the interim the sky lightened enough to do without.