Wishing....wishing

   This far south, we do not get the beautiful fall foliage show that occurs in the more northern states.  We have to be happy with an occasional orange or red leaf that may slowly drift from the gum trees or popcorn trees.  Sometimes, the maples will put on a show if the weather is reasonable but the drought has browned the leaves before any color change has happened.  So...we take what we get.   Here I am just wishing for some autumn-like show but, instead, I am crunching dried leaves.  

  My hike this morning did bring a smile as I found two...yes, TWO...signs of fall!  First, as I made my way around back behind the greenhouse and grape arbors, I was tickled to find a couple of wild persimmons still hanging on the tree.  The little gold blobs are not ripe and would cause me to pucker up something fierce, if I tried to eat one.  The drought caused huge droppage of the fruit early on and the possums will most likely get the few that hang on the limbs before the first frost makes them sweet.  Still, I saw them and that brought a flood of happy memories.  On the old farm place, there was a few wild persimmon trees in the woods between the house and fields.  I can recall always trying to snitch a snack even though I was warned of the puckering and drying effect that I would surely experience.  The high content of tannins in the unripe fruit make them...ummm...rather unpalatable.  Still...autumn!  Wee bits of autumn dangled from the limbs of the persimmon trees!

  Then, as I meandered near the old canebrake, a second color blast brought vibes of fall and more memories.  A beautyberry shrub had the bright purplish berries starting to ripen.  Though, sparse due to the weather, a few stalks had the nice, rounded clumps on the branches.  These things always mesmerized me as a kid because what kid does not like purple (of any kind) and I loved watching the chickens hop up and down as they stripped the branches of the small berries.  To a kid, seeing a chicken hop is an amusing thing.  Seeing hundreds of chickens hop is downright comical. (Yes, Pop had hundreds of chickens when I was a kid.)  The beautyberry sighting brought a fit of giggles as I thought of those goofy chickens bouncing around the woods.

  So, fall is here, I guess.  I found my two bits of evidence that the summer is waning and perhaps cooler weather is in the works.  I sure hope so.