Ten ten twelve

It was plenty cold enough today to realize that late fall and winter are not far off. The temperature peaked at 52 degrees in the saintly city.  I spent a little time outside, but mostly I got my exercise playing tennis at Fort Snelling's Fred Wells Tennis Center. It was windless and reasonably warm inside, so there wasn't much excuse for mediocre play, but there doesn't have to be a reason for it, it just happens sometimes. My old tennis partner from Tucson was my partner again against two of the regulars. We pretty much played to a tie, although they won a set and we were a game up in the second when the girls team from Richfield High School prematurely interrupted the competition. It was a good enough time to quit, so we did. There will be other days.

I have some photos from a visit with PW to Coldwater Spring, an area north of Fort Snelling that is being restored to prairie and oak savannah.  There is a natural spring there, that has been used for centuries by native Americans and early settlers, that is being restored, too.  Near the spring a pond forms and the water feeds a stream that goes down to the river.

We walked down towards the river to where the bike path lies.  The path forms the trail to Fort Snelling State Park and goes along the Mississippi River through some wooded areas.  A lot of the trees are getting leafless because of a reasonably constant wind that's been blowing lately.

All the bare trees remind me that soon I'll be moving about the yard with a rake in my hands making piles of leaves to take to the leaf recycling center on Pleasant Avenue. I guess one needn't play tennis to get a reasonable amount of exercise in an region so blessed with deciduous trees. The theatre of seasons is more comedy than drama, at least this year.

Halloween is three weeks away, followed closely by November.