Views from My Perch & From the Street

These skies appeared above on Tuesday and captured from my patio (my perch). Though it may look cold, the temperatures are actually still rather warm.

The following photos were taken on Thursday during my stroll and a bit of "this and that" shopping.  Again the sky looks dismal but the sun smiled on us for a short while. I didn't manage to get a photo as I had my hands full of shopping!

John, of John's Island, if you are reading this, I took these photos of Fall leaves for you because you liked my dogwood tree in colour. I'm sure there are nicer trees in the hood but these ones were along my route. Most of them are immature maple trees. You may know that the maple tree is national (Canada) arboreal emblem and the maple leaf is on our nation's flag. I just love the brilliant orange and red hues in the maple trees during the Fall season.

Alas, when the winds blow and the rain falls we get all these lovely leaves falling to the ground and old man Winter is not too far behind.

The weather was still warm today but during the night as I sit in my living room I can feel a slight chill in the air. I turned on the fire place on for a while (yes it take a switch to turn on the gas).  It only takes  a little time to warm things up at this time of year.

I'm linking up with Skywatch Friday today.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

A Stormy Night

Hi friends,

We are well into Fall weather here.

It has either been pouring rain all week or at least very cloudy.

I always love to photograph outside my doors as the scene is ever changing even when the sky is very cloudy.

You can see we have a variety of trees, some with leave intact and in colour, others with most of the leaves gone and still others that will keep their leaves all winter.

This green and red leafed tree is a dogwood tree that sits in the corner of my garden.  The dogwood flower is the official floral emblem my province. My tree is rather young yet but in Spring I like to see it's white flowers.

This is what the dogwood flower looks like.

Photo credit:  Wikimedia Commons

In the wee hours of the morning before I called it a night I heard a sound like glass being tapped. I ignored it at first but I kept hearing the sound.  I then turned out all the lights to peer outside my patio doors and found that my patio umbrella had broken off. The screws somehow came loose during the storm and were hitting the glass table top. I went out and brought the screws inside and laid the umbrella on the patio so it wouldn't fly through the air and damage anything. I waited until daylight to take the photo.

Right now there is no rain but it will probably be back soon.

UPDATE:  In retrospect, the storm and the falling over of my umbrella seems very symbolic.  For today (Wednesday) there was a shooting attack in Canada's Parliament Buildings after a soldier guarding the National War Memorial was shot (and sadly, later died). My thoughts and prayers are with all those who lead and/or guard our country., and particularly those that lost their loved one Corporal Nathan Cirillo.  Corporal Cirillo is the second military man in Canada to be killed this week. As the night falls here, many children in Parliament area schools and day cares and many staff and politicians on the Hill and in surround areas are in lock down while police continue to investigate and try to assure it is safe for them to leave.