Color My World

The last several days here have been absolutely gorgeous.  The sun has been shining, the skies have been blue, and the temperatures have been mild and pleasant.  Although the leaves on our trees and most of the ones on our street are still green,

I found a few spots of color around town and in the park to share with you.  These pictures were taken two or three days ago.  Since that time many more trees have started to change.

I liked the way these dark branches and tree trunks stood out against the yellows and oranges of the leaves behind them. 

This is a row of trees along the edge of the soccer fields in various stages of changing to red.

A few evenings ago, I noticed they were cutting down some of the trees where the buzzards like to roost.  I imagine it was the buzzards roosting in them that caused the trees to die, at least in part.

I wondered if maybe the buzzards had already gone farther south, but then saw dozens of them roosting in the pine trees as you can see by my pictures if you look closely.  The next night after taking the pictures below, I saw a group of them circling and swooping over a very large area of the park.  There must have been 100 of them, at least, all together there in the sky.  It was really amazing to see.  They may have been gathering together then to start their journey south, but I don't know for sure.  The pictures below show just a mere handful in the sky and trees compared to the number I saw in the sky that next night.  I made the photos of the treetops a bigger size to make it easier for you to see the buzzards.

Finally, I wanted to give you a quick update on our playground that was burned.  As I have seen so many times from the people in our little town, we are taking lemons and making lemonade.  This past week, a construction company came in and tore down and removed all the charred remains of the part of the structure that was burned.  The company donated every bit of their time and labor to the city to take down what was left of the destroyed part and then to spread new mulch down on the ground below.

Today the part that remains was re-opened so the children of our town could return here to play.  Plans are in the works not only to rebuild the part that was destroyed in the fire, but to add on and make the playground even larger.  They are also including plans to make the new parts built more accessible to the handicapped.  A prayer service and re-dedication ceremony was held this afternoon to mark the re-opening of what remains until building can begin next spring to add on and make it bigger and better.