PEEEEAAAKKK!!!!

   

OOOOH! This is my favorite time of year!  I’m soooo excited because we didn’t have this last year.  I’m talking about Peak. What they call the few days of autumn when the majority of the trees are at their brightest AND the sun is shining.  Last year, I don’t know what happened.  I’ve heard that for the leaves to be vibrant, there needs to be cold rain.  Must be we didn’t get that in time last year. Either that or the trees were at peak during a few days of overcast skies.  You don’t notice peak unless the sun shines… for the most part.

So, Saturday my husband, my older son, and I drove up to Colgate University where our niece was playing her last home field hockey game of her career.  We took the camera and snapped pictures of the landscape all the way up Rt 12.  

The game was a nail-biter… double overtime… but, Colgate lost in sudden death.  A disappointment, but the game was enjoyable and it was a beautiful afternoon to watch any outdoor sporting event.  Then we went to the village bookstore and bought four Colgate hoodies, a Colgate coffee mug, sticker, and postcard (to put in a scrapbook)

It began to rain shortly after the game was over so  without the bright sunlight, the foliage didn’t appear as vibrant.  After we got to Grandma’s house to pick up our other son, it stopped raining, the sun came out enough to bring us an amazing rainbow!   As pretty as the pictures are of that, they don’t come close to the beauty of seeing it live.  It was as if the rainbow came down and painted the bright colors on the trees. It was perfect!

We decided to take some time on Sunday and drive around to get more good pictures that we wouldn’t have to take from a moving vehicle. So, around noon yesterday we loaded into the van and took off.  We drove all over the hills of Endicott, Vestal, and then north to Greene, Smithville Flats, McDonough, and Oxford.  We went to Cook Park and Bowman Lake State Park.  We stopped for a picnic lunch at a place Jon and his dad used to go fishing a lot along the Genegantslet Creek.  

We didn’t get home until nearly 6:30 PM… I don’t remember ever having a day where the four of us spent that kind of a day together, without anyone else. Just us. Here are the best of the rest of the hundred or so pictures we took yesterday (a few are from Saturday):

                                            

I think if you want to see any of the pictures a little bit bigger you can just click on it.  There isn’t a single picture that is as beautiful as seeing the gorgeous colors in person and the feeling I get this time of year looking at the autumn peak foliage is about as good as it gets! My husband was the same way… almost giddy…LOL!!! I wish this would last all year, but I guess then it wouldn’t be so special. 

Now I have to email the pics to my Dad who moved to Florida last month and rub it in. After all, it’s the only time of year I have the opportunity to brag about our weather, right?

Peace.

This is a little puppy I found while browsing the internet.  She is up for adoption at a local rescue.  I know someone will give her a good home, soon because she’s beautiful.  I wish I could take her, but my dog would not deal with another dog well, and besides, my husband would divorce me.  I just wanted to share the picture because I can’t stop looking at it. 

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