Bright leaves

Being outside today was splendid: warm, sunny, and with brilliant fall colors. I am very glad I was toting my camera on my walks. This year's leaves are especially magnificent.

After work, I took Wish for a long walk around our new neighborhood (during which I spotted another Keeshond out for a stroll!!) and then sat on our porch and finished reading Looking for Alaska. I love this season.

Leaves upon leaves

This afternoon I meandered down to that beloved Shadow Falls trail, which follows a tiny stream over to the actual Shadow Falls above the Mississippi River.

My view when I looked up:

And one of my views when I looked down:

My pace was sure not setting any personal records today, but it was one of my favorite runs in a long time.

Looking up

After a wonderful weekend of volunteering at the Twin Cities Marathon (and feeling wholeheartedly inspired and energized by the community of runners, spectators, volunteers and staff around me), I was back to work today. I went for a walk at lunch, and it was one of those strolls where I was looking up the whole time.

Miles and Laurel has been short on leaf pictures so far this season, but I'll make up lost ground in the days and weeks ahead. It's beautiful around here.

All of a sudden

In Minnesota, the leaves are changing - and this year the fall colors snuck up on me! It seemed like there were hints of yellow and orange around the neighborhood earlier in the month, but all of a sudden, the colors are brilliant.

It's the time of year when you take an extra little break here and there during a run to look up at the sky.

This is my first post of 2014 about fall colors but likely not the last. This may be my favorite time of the year.

August leaf

Morning reflection

Our weekly spring update

It feels like spring rolled into town full force this week, with warmer temperatures, plentiful sunshine and lots of leaves. I was deleting some leaf photos from my phone (if you can believe it, there are many more leaf photos that don't end up on the blog) and even as I poked fun at myself for the quantity, I also liked seeing the progression in the last several weeks.

So I'm happy to keep tracking that progress!

One example:

Another example, from a gorgeous midweek late afternoon walk:

It also seemed like candles popped out this week - a little later in the season than when I first noticed them a few years back, but marvelous just the same. (Candles are the little bright green extensions when pine trees grow each year - so named because they really look like candles.)

The dandelions are also in full force:

With lots of sunshine this week, I liked peeking up at the new leaves.

And of course, a return trip later in the week to the lilac tunnel, now in nearly full bloom:

I love the spring layers:

After a long winter, springtime in Minnesota is truly something to behold.

Tiny leaves

In this part of Minnesota, rain is falling and the wind is howling.

But from a walk earlier in the weekend: a little, welcome sign of what's to come.

Ice patterns

From this morning's walk, before pedestrians (and canines) crunched through the bubbly ice on the sidewalk's edge:

Spotted: one little leaf

Another leaf pile

If today's gusty winds aren't reminder enough, the leaves are on their way out, and it did snow earlier in the week. There will be a cap on 2013's leaf photos.

But it's not happening this week. I forgot how pretty they look all frozen in the morning!

Happy Saturday to you and yours!

November leaves

Everything in Minnesota is happening two weeks later than usual this year because spring arrived late, so there is a weird amount of bright leaves still left on the trees.

But it's snowing tonight - November does average nine inches of snow in the Twin Cities, after all - and that means this could be the last round of leaf pictures!

These photos, by the way, are courtesy of a few miles around the streets of St. Paul. These leaves won't be around too much longer, so I love to get outside when they're still so bright.

Friday leaf report

Three trillion trees Thursday

Without a race on my calendar this fall, I'm leisurely running (a little) and walking (a lot) and taking in the fall colors and wonderful weather in a very relaxed way. I run outside year-round, but it's actually easier right now to picture feeling more oomph and motivation when I'm hustling through cold miles later this winter than on these glorious October days.

I think these are my favorite weeks of the year in Minnesota.

Whether I'm with Wish or Josh or on my own, the strolls around town have been fab:

Marvelous Monday: Week 39

It's Monday, and it's a gorgeous day in this corner of the world: sunny, deep blue sky, and temperatures in the 70s. The leaves are starting to change color, and you know that thrills me.

Five more marvelous tidbits:

1) I ran this morning for the first time in nearly three weeks! Items of note: pink cirrus clouds, somewhere two and three miles covered, a lengthy stop to examine some marvelous maple leaves. It was a wonderful way to start Monday.

2) I spent some time at my parents' house on Saturday, and along with old copies of my high school newspapers, yearbooks, sports memorabilia, cards, photos and a letter jacket, I also retrieved Wish's All-Time Favorite Toy, which we'd left there on a previous visit. It's this gnarly, beat-up old toy football that has long since lost its squeak, and when I showed it to him later in the day, I thought he was going to explode with happiness.

On Sunday, I found him in the living room, not expecting to play, just sitting like this:

3) It's Twin Cities Marathon Week! This is one of my favorite weeks of the year. The course looks beautiful, and so does the forecast! I'll be volunteering with my committee near the finish line. I know several friends (and readers - hello!) are running the marathon or 10 Mile. If this means you, please give me an approximate time range, and I will cheer and shout for you! I am so proud of the runners already, especially the ones who are tackling a distance for the first time.

4) Tonight Josh and I are watching the play-in game between the Rays and the Rangers that determines which team will go to the playoffs. Like many Minnesotans, I'd guess, I have a soft spot in my heart for Game 163s that harkens back to the Twins' own Game 163 in 2009 against the Tigers that lasted 12 innings and was totally epic. I was on a work trip to Colorado and wasn't able to watch the game in real time, but my phone was going crazy with texts and I fielded several questions at my work event about the game. (Josh was at the stadium, so I guess we balance out.)

5) And to pair with tonight's baseball game: tonight's dinner is sweet corn and bacon skillet mac and cheese. It's basically bacon, corn, pasta and cheese topped with tomatoes. This Iowa Girl Eats knows what she's doing.

In a potentially unprecedented way, this Marvelous Monday covers a number of things I love: running, leaves, clouds, Wish, my family, Twin Cities Marathon, baseball, cooking and food. Whoa.

How's your week starting out, Reader? What is your best guess for peak fall color in the Twin Cities? Will you spectating and cheering this weekend (or running yourself)? Favorite fall recipes? Do share! The butternut squash is arriving in this week's CSA!

On their way

Today on my walk I looked up and realized: the leaves are almost here!

 

Serious spring - and even summer - are just around the bend.

Another turning point

Well, rats. When I started my taper - and when that decline in mileage coincided with darker and colder mornings - I vowed that I had done my last early morning run for a long time. I am here to report that today was the last long morning run for a long time. Because of my upcoming travel plans, it just made more sense to squeeze in my last long run of the marathon training cycle before the weekend.

In one word: Brr!

The temperature was 31 degrees when I started, and that made for good outfit practice in case similar temps stick around for the next week or so. I ended up wearing running tights, a long-sleeved shirt, a light jacket, hat and gloves, and that was pretty good with the exception of cold hands by the end. But - disclaimer - I fully recognize and concede that in a few months 31 degrees will be nothing to shiver at.

But anyway, I got going and meandered through several St. Paul neighborhoods and the river road. I always have a little sentimental moment at the end of marathon training cycles when I notch what will be my last run for a long time with a bunch of miles on the river road. It's easy to feel that way, too, during such a pretty season.

The pink stripes in the sky this morning were out of this world!

I haven't actually partaken in many sunrises lately, so it was fun to see the pink clouds against the fall colors on the river: such an unusual color combination.

When I got my first glimpse of the Minneapolis skyline, by the way, everything was still dark with the lone exception of the early morning sunlight reflecting off the skyscrapers. Oooh. But here's the view from later in the morning:

And then the sun came up, and I saw something that I know has been lurking on a couple of recent mornings, but this was my first sighting of the season. Frost. Frost on the leaves! A whole new world of leaf- watching possibilities!

I also love leaves on the ground, which I don't think I've documented too extensively in the 2012 leaf cycle at Miles and Laurel. It looks like confetti to me, especially when they're all still different colors and not just crunchy and, well, on the decline.

There you have it. Next time I lace up my running shoes, I'll be on the streets of Montreal, a week out from the Mankato Marathon!