Limbo Week 5 day 4

I am going to go out later and take some pictures to add of the trees turning. i guess they are all getting the signal from the cold. Usually by the end of this month the trees are bare. Last year they didn't drop til in november, but i think that was because there wasn't any rain or wind to knock them off. 

The weird thing about fall here is that it starts subtly and gradually gets prettier and prettier. Each passing day brings out new colors, first the reds from the dogwoods and the sourwoods, the purple from the pear and sourwoods, then the yellows, oranges and flames from the maples and oaks. Every day i look out the window or drive up the street it is more and more intense and saturated. Some years it is almost surreal in our yard. Then, in an instant it seems, the trees are bleak and bare. I can never predict the "peak' and it's something you can only be sure of once it has passed. Friends who want to visit always ask when to come and i can only be general until afterwards, when i can say "yesterday was the peak". And to me at least it seems like once it peaks, it is over in a shiver. breathtakingly beautiful today, dank and bare the next.

I have never been able to pinpoint which produces better colors, a wet year or a dry year. Probably it is more than just the rainfall that goes into it. Every year has it's standout species..so maybe they react differently. i only remember one year out of the last 20 that seemed mainly brown. Just the anticipation of the beauty to come makes me excited about the fall.

Did you know there are only 5 regions of the world that experience fall colors? Aren't you glad to live in one? Additionally, the lower Appalachian mountains where we live has the most biodiversity on earth as far as tree species? The reason for this is that as the glaciers pushed down the north american continent during the last ice age, species "fled" further and further south to survive. The ice sheets stopped their advance north of here and as they retreated the refugees stayed.

Sometimes i am suprised I ended up moving as far north as i am, because in general I do not like cold weather and this is definitely the furthest north I think I will ever go (never say never), but i am happy to be where there are 4 seasons and grateful winters are mild.

Now to the Limbo reference. I remain biding my time until i walk. I have started taking more risks with my foot. I have put a little weight on it. I can now bathe easily and get around better.

I have become more inventive in getting or doing what i want. If it had only been my left i know i would be driving. The carrying limitation means no real cleaning or laundry doing. Some of the people in my ankle support group get around this by rolling across the floor on desk chairs. i am not willing to sacrifice my floors to do laundry or vacuum. Yesterday i went downstairs again and straightened out my scrapbook stuff as much as i could. I still can't find a glue stick!!! there is no way I won't be cleared to walk after my next visit and then it shold only take me 4 weeks to get to full weight bearing. So here i am, another day of plotting ambulation!