A bit of fall color

Laurel Lake in Pine Grove Furnace State Park, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania

Even though the inside of the cabin dropped to 53 degrees for a while yesterday morning, I just couldn’t bring myself to either turn on the heat or the fireplace. The second week of October is too early for that, particularly when the forecast was for temperatures to go back up into the mid-60’s by today. I was tempted to light the fireplace, but I resisted. Cool weather is why women invented sweaters.

I don’t like turning the heat on and off multiple times. I like to turn it on in the fall and then turn it off again in the spring, with none of this constant on/off routine. Another two to three weeks into the year is plenty soon enough for the heat. Today, the cabin is back up to 55-57 degrees and that feels entirely comfortable. Funny how just a few degrees makes such a big difference to me. I still had four cats on the bed last night, though.

The birds are starting to return to my feeders after their summer hiatus. Although I’ve heard reports of pine siskins all over the place, none of them have found my feeders yet. It’s getting to the point in the year when I’m not at home during prime hours of daylight. The mornings are not fully light by the time I leave the cabin, and I have little more than an hour of full daylight after I get home. The pretty little siskins might be visiting when I’m not at home, but if they are, they sure aren’t eating much out of the niger seed feeder. I suspect they aren’t around my feeders, though why they yet haven’t found mine is something of a disappointment. They don’t come south every year, anyway, and I look forward to seeing them when they do.