It's starting

It's a months-long process around here. The leaves start to turn to shades of yellow, gold, red, and brown before they drop to the ground. By sometime in November, the grape vines and deciduous trees around us will be bare. Except for the oaks which keep their brown leaves through the winter until spring growth pushes them off.

I believe that these are sauvignon blanc leaves. They're usually the first of the grape leaves to turn.

I have two outdoor jobs I want to get done before the weather changes (right now we're having warm, dry days). The first is to get the apples up off the ground so that I can cut the grass when it's time. The second is to saw up some fallen limbs and old grapevine trunks and add them to the firewood pile. The grapevine trunks are sitting in a pile out by the back gate. They are what remain of the trunks that Callie used to bring home from our walks in the vineyard and they've been sitting out there for well over a year now. It's time.