Mid-season

So ends another postseason for our hometown champions. Plenty of blown opportunities, some headscratching decisions from Metheny (keeping Wacha in after a four-pitch walk?), and the Redbirds are done. It was a terrific run--almost every game was a nailbiter. And I got a little taste of the post-Molina era. I'm glad it's not upon us yet, because it will be a sad sad day indeed, but at least I know the Cards will still have it in them to make their foes struggle to hold them back.

On the plus side, I've got my evenings back. It's cooler and damper these days, but it's still strolling weather. And the colours are definitely peaking. The early-changing locusts are nearly bare after the days of wind and rain, but their golden leaves are still plastered to the asphalt below. And as the most brilliant of the maples begin to shed as well, the torch is going to the ashes, whose maroon seems particularly vivid this fall. Meanwhile, the hawthorns and the Bradfords are only just getting started.

Even the less-showy leaves are impressive. Today I was walking under a simple hackberry and just the play of pale yellow ranging almost to white against light-green was captivating. It'll be chilly this weekend, but as long as it's also dry that won't stop me from going out. Today I didn't even need a jacket, just a long-sleeved overshirt. (Granted, I wasn't out long.) Maybe I'm pushing it keeping the plants outside this late and I should be spending that time potting them up for indoors instead, but I feel like chancing it.