The university grounds crew had come along and used their power blowers to push all the fallen leaves into one big long pile, presumably to pick them up and dispose of them. I liked the way it looked with all the oranges, browns, golds and yellows in an endless line.
The sky was dark and foreboding when I snapped this quick photo with my cell phone, but the sun was doing its best to get below the darkness and light up the fall colours. Oh how I love autumn colours!
Another photo editing experiment...Above is the original photo. It was taken at Klickers, which I've posted pictures from before, I believe. In the summer they sell strawberries, in the fall it's pumpkins and in winter it's Christmas trees. They also have an antique shop, fruit/veg stand and ice cream parlor, where they sell their homemade ice cream. It's quite tasty. Everything they sell is grown on their farm. These wagons are for use in hauling pumpkins; you pick a wagon, pull it down to the patch, choose your pumpkins and load up the wagons to go back to the shop and pay. They're 20 cents per pound this year. Below are the edited versions of this photo. Which one do you like best - original or one of the edits? And why?
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Perched on a fence at the side of our house, a flicker was munching on some late harvest grapes. The fall colours really make this picture, I think; the flickers have really been enjoying our neighbourhood lately and I'm not sure why. Flickers are common in this valley, and are related to woodpeckers, so they have hearty, thick beaks and can be heard hammering away on telephone poles and thick tree trunks throughout the summer. When they are in flight they have a distinctive wing-flap/swoop pattern, and the underside of their wings display a splash of rusty red.
Evening light casts a warm glow on a College Place barn and the Blue Mountains in the distance on a chilly fall day.
I seriously can't get enough of the fall colours in this valley...though I do understand they are nothing compared to those in the Northeast. I spent five days in upstate New York a couple of weeks ago and the foliage simply took my breath away. Though this weekend the peak colours around this valley have done the same thing. I will get more foliage photos for you in the coming week, before they all disappear (it seems to happen overnight every year!).
The parents of some friends of mine built this mini faux creek next to their house when their yard kept flooding due to spring swelling of Mill Creek, a small river that flows through Walla Walla and College Place. A lot of Mill Creek is underground in Walla Walla; there are several spots downtown where you can stand at a fence and look down into the swiftly-flowing water (in the summer) or shallow stream (in the winter).
Believe it or not there are still a few flowers blooming around the WW Valley. These gorgeous daisy-style flowers (I know, I'm terrible -I don't know my flora!) were quite prolific around a local front yard - in two different colours.
This is a statue located outside the College Place Presbyterian Church. I don't know the story behind it, but as the man is holding a hammer I would guess it is something about the man being tired and needing comfort from the Creator.
This week was the peak of fall colour here in the Walla Walla Valley. I have some beautiful autumn pictures I will share with you this week as we transition from crisp fall to soggy and cold nearly-winter weather. This is the view looking south down Cedar Street in College Place. The water tower was the tallest thing in the city until Walla Walla U. built its 7-story women's residence hall in the 1970s.
This is a downtown restaurant that used to be a train station. When I first came to town for college in 2001, the restaurant was called Jacobi's. About two years ago the owner sold it and it was renamed "The Depot Grill," which in my opinion is a much worse name, but no one cares what I think! Recently it was resold to the original owner, I believe, and it is now Jacobi's again, from what I can tell. However the building still says otherwise, so I'm not exactly sure! This restaurant is an American grill, but they also make pasta. I've only eaten here once, because they don't have a whole lot for vegetarians.
In spite of the cold weather, there are still a few sunflowers hanging on to life this season. These are at a museum in Milton-Freewater (I'll do a series of the museum soon).
My husband and I went for a walk last week and I, of course, brought my camera. This tree caught my eye, with its festive berries brightly coloured against the blue-grey sky.
Still holding onto some of its summer glory, this leaf on a tree outside my home is slowly giving way to the inevitability of autumn.
Here is the produce section of Klicker's. I love the colours! It's so festive for this time of year. To the right of the picture is the ice cream shop where they serve ice cream made in-house. Behind me is the antique shop, which I didn't go into this time.
I just love these trees with the light coloured bark. They are lovely in the spring and summer and gorgeous in the fall. I'm not sure what kind of tree this is...is it a birch tree? Anyone know? This particular tree is located on 2nd Avenue in Walla Walla in the La Quinta hotel parking lot. The brick building in the background is one of many downtown wine tasting rooms. This is a much bigger one in its own building; most are in small spaces amidst other shops and restaurants on the main streets downtown.
In this large field there used to sit an elementary school called Rogers Adventist School. It's a field across the street from the Walla Walla University Church. A few years ago (3 now?) they tore down the old school and rebuilt it about 3/4 of a mile away, next to the Adventist high school called Walla Walla Valley Academy. The trees that lined the sidewalk in front of the school still stand, however, and they are gorgeous lit up in the evening sunlight in the fall.
