Red maple leaves
Terri Webster Schrandt

Sunday Stills: #Leaves of Autumn or Spring

As late Autumn has settled in here in Northeastern Washington, I feel blessed to have enjoyed a very full year so far. Autumn is my favorite season…who doesn’t love the drops in temperature, the colors of the landscape changing every few days, and the busyness of events and activities that keep us on our toes (back-to-school, harvest fairs, Halloween, and Thanksgiving).

We experienced a long and wonderful autumn with bright colors lasting for weeks. Last year (2022) our hot summer lasted into late September, and the temperatures cooled enough for perhaps what felt like 2-3 weeks of Autumn. Even the leaves were confused in mid-October.

Autumn Maple leaves
Leaves are wilted though barely changed October 2022

The third week in October, this year, we spent the day in Green Bluff, a local farm conglomeration that sells cider, fruit, jams, and goodies. What a delightful, warm day that was.

two people sitting on hay bail
Visiting Green Bluff farms

I shared this next image earlier this week. On October 23, I drove to the overlook that shows a North Spokane neighborhood in its Autumn splendor! Off in the distance toward the mountains, is my area of Nine Mile Falls. I shared this one last Wednesday.

Autumn View over Indian Trail area
Bird’s Eye View

Two days later? … this!

Autumn snow on backyard deck
First snow arrives October 25th

My front porch decorations were a little frosted about the whole idea.

Autumn decoration front porch

The snow melted quickly but was followed by freezing cold temperatures for the rest of the week, then rain began. I’m not complaining, but I felt like we’ve had all four seasons within the last three weeks!

“As long as autumn lasts, I shall not have hands, canvas and colors enough to paint the beautiful things I see.” ~Vincent Van Gogh

Leafy Views from the Trail

Now that I have lived through three Eastern Washington autumns, I’m savvy enough to get out on the trails and various streets to capture Fall splendor before it vanishes. Somewhere during the four-season show, I took a hike on the nearby Centennial Trail that meanders along Lake Spokane and was greeted with Autumn glory that almost made me cry tears of joy.

“As I travel, an autumn wanderer, my heart flutters in leaves of gold.”
~ Angie Weiland-Crosby

Spokane River
Spokane River View from Charles Road
Autumn Tree Rounded reflections

“Layer upon layer of beauty and mystery unfold before us, each one revealing a deeper truth.” ~Anonymous

As I took a few steps along the trail, the view unfolded dramatically.

Autumn colors along the Spokane River
I’m jealous that this is someone’s dock!

“Leaves teach us that it’s okay to change colors and shed layers; it’s all part of our growth.”
~Unknown

I ventured another mile on the trail to the Deep Creek Steel Bridge.

Deep Creek Steel Bridge Autumn
Deep Creek Steel Bridge

Standing on the bridge, looking southwest, was this view of the golden quaking aspens.

Golden aspen trees along the Centennial Trail

My heart was full.

I am pleased to share many of these images in a local Facebook group that focuses on Nine Mile Falls and the surrounding area.

It’s Spring Somewhere

And just for fun, because it felt like a couple of spring days, I’m sharing some spring blooms to celebrate spring in the Southern Hemisphere.

pink and white ivy geranium
Spring’s Ivy Geranium
Hydrangea close-up
Spring Hydrangea

The spring hydrangeas have been “put to bed” for the winter. Cross your fingers that they survive!

Layers of Leaves

I will “leave” you with these filtered versions of the various layers of leaves I’ve collected. (I use the Painnt app on my mobile to capture these effects).

Green oak leaf among brown leaf layers
Green Oak leaf joins layers of brown leaves
Mixed fall leaves
Leaves that fell after the rain
Red maple leaves
Layers of red Maple leaves still adorn the trees

“Life is like a painting, with each layer adding depth and texture to the canvas.” ~Anonymous

** All images were taken with my new Samsung S23 Ultra phone. I use Picmonkey for photo editing. **

Inspiring Photo Challenges This Week

Each week I find inspiration from my fellow bloggers’ photo challenges. I enjoy incorporating these into my Sunday Stills weekly themes.

Sunday Stills Photo Challenge Reminders

The Sunday Stills weekly-themed photo challenge is easy to join. You have all week to share and link your post.

  • Remember to title your blog post a little differently than mine.
  • Please create a new post for the theme or link a recent one.
  • Entries for this theme can be posted all week.
  • Tag your post “Sunday Stills.”
  • Don’t forget to create a pingback to this post so that other participants can read your post.
  • I also recommend adding your post’s URL to the comments.

This Week’s Featured Bloggers

Sunday Stills is a wonderful community of bloggers, poets, and photographers who desire to connect with one another. Below are this week’s links from bloggers who shared their photos of autumn leaves and spring blooms. I add these all week as new links are posted.

Thank you for stopping by last week — you may have read I had the flu and boy, did I feel frightful. I wasn’t a good blog reader last week, so I’m playing a bit of catch-up this week. WordPress is still glitchy and I am not receiving some bloggers’ emails.

Enjoy this week’s leaf show and join me next Sunday for the monthly color challenge: BROWN.

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135 comments

    • You can be both, Anne, LOL! Thank you. The Norway maples trees have a few hangers on this week as we discovered when we drove to downtown Spokane yesterday! Their leaves are a rich golden yellow-brown. In Sacramento, I remember seeing autumn splendor in McKinley Park and all through the downtown areas right around Veteran’s Day.

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  7. Terri, My heart is full too. The imagines of your landscape are stunning. Love the colors you brought us, and leaves and autumn aside, the rivers looks more brilliant too. Great examples of symmetry, and happy autumn. And I miss the farm places. We have to drive a bit to find them. Fantastic post, Terri.

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  9. Perfect timing on this one Terri – so glad your season was/is such a good one! Hopefully once the snow melted autumn still had a few remaining breaths! Your beautiful autumnal scenes ALMOST made me wish to be back in the north but your snowy scene reminded me of why I left LOL. Thanks so much for mentioning my post. We don’t get much autumn color here other than our pink sweetgrass and the occasional yellow-leafed tree so I enjoyed your post all the more!

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    • Thank you, Tina! I didn’t expect to see fall color in your post but I’m happy to see it. I suppose we have to take the good with the bad. I don’t mind the snow, but by January, I’m over it, because the snow creates fog when the sun comes out. We’re hoping to be snowbirds in Arizona by then 🌞

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  24. I’m envious of all the gorgeous shots you’ve taken with the calm water to capture the reflections. Simply stunning! I love your decoration that was snowed upon. I think that storm is what hit our area a few days later. I’m glad the snow melted too. I smiled wondering if that decoration was a new purchase at a craft show or if you’ve had it for a while. It’s SO cute. Your choices for the prompt are so eye-catching!! Happy November to you. 🥰

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    • Autumn was good to us this time. Warm days, cold nights, etc. I’ve had the porch decorations for two years, bought at a craft fair. The two fall-themed characters come off and I found similar decor for Christmas. Glad you enjoyed the show. Today, at least is a fairly nice day, a little sun and 51 degrees!!

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      • That’s great that Autumn treated you well this year.
        It’s an adorable decoration. Makes me want to find something cute to decorate my front porch now that the pumpkin needs to go treat the critters in the field.
        I hope you got outside to enjoy the sun!
        We’re at 51 degrees this morning and windy. We get warmth with wind so it feels cooler.

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  29. Terri, these might be the most gorgeous pictures I’ve ever seen anywhere! What a beautiful fall. Your river reflections are stunning as are your leaves. They are all breathtaking. The picture overlooking the city was amazing. We have some change of colors, but they are not that brilliant. In CA we never saw colors that brilliant. Wow!

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    • Aww, thank you, Marsha! Autumn put on a fabulous show this year. I felt like I was in the right place that day. Next time you come to Spokane I’ll have to drive you to the overlook. It’s pretty cool! In Sacramento we had some really pretty areas but fall didn’t show up there until mid November. And the Sacramento state campus had amazing trees. One thing I don’t see here are liquid amber trees. So gorgeous!

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      • Well your area put on quite a production. Ours is pretty just not as vivid. I haven’t gone hiking, though. Getting into the trails might be a different story entirely. 🙂

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  30. All the photos of leaves are beautiful Terri, especially the ones with reflections on the water. I always like seeing water reflections. I always like how you use the quotes between the photos. Green Bluff sounds like fun. How nice you got someone to take a photo of the three of you. I have always scheduled my posts for 5:00 a.m. I made it midnight instead, so I can’t include the link here. I was taking photos on my walk today, some which I’ll be using for your “Rounded” Challenge.

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  35. Oh such fabulous autumn shots Terri, those colour are amazing! Then snow?? You live in a beautiful part of the world and make use of it so well.
    Thanks for allowing me to share some spring shots from down under and as I’ve just visited a Bluebell Festival I had to share some photos. Probably more flowers than leaves in my post, but they go so well together 🙂
    https://debs-world.com/2023/11/06/turning-over-a-new-leaf-sundaystills/

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    • Thank you, Debbie! After living in Northern California for 40 years, I have remember autumn comes earlier here in Washington. I’m glad I hit the trail on the day I did to capture perfect light and color. We’ve had rain here which we always need, but more snow is on the way. I’ll be along to read yours shortly!

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  36. It’s the same here, Terri! The leaves fall faster than I could take photos of the changes. I managed to take some the last few days. Your photos are beautiful. I love the bird’s eye view one and the reflections in the water.

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  43. Terri,
    You are so fortunate to have beautiful fall color this year. Our summer and fall seasons have been so dry and hot, our leaves barely gave us a show this year. Still, very little rain, but when it comes the leaves will come down with it. Your water scenes are awesome! The image of you, Hans, and your puppy made me smile! Thanks! Joe

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    • Thank you, Joe! The La Nina winters have brought some interesting seasonal changes the last couple of years. I believe fall 2022 was a bust because we had a hot summer then long drawn out winter here. 2023 was more normal, thank goodness. Thanks for stopping by and hope all is well!

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  45. Wonderful photos, Terri. I was especially entranced by the reflections. Just beautiful will all that bright color. And I had to laugh at the crazy weather up your way. We haven’t had snow yet, but it’s been cold/hot/cold and rainy! Happy Autumn’s end.

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  51. Such lovely and colorful Spokane River photos. Now I know how you knew what my tall golden tree is; I need to commit the names to memory. And I enjoyed your frosty harvest porch decor! I’m not looking forward to us being here when our frostiness settles in; hopefully, we can move the truck camper indoors while we’re here working.

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    • Thank you, Jez! I love those reflections and appreciate them now that our autumn is over for the year.

      Just an FYI, I can’t seem to subscribe to your blog. Are you self-hosted? I don’t get any emails of your posts any longer 😦

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  59. What a fun place Green Bluff Farm looks. I like the idea of them selling seasonal products, especially cider, Terri! Did you buy any?

    You’ve captured autumn in all her splendid beauty. The reflections of the autumnal colours on the water are beautiful. Thank goodness it was a calm day.

    We sometimes get four seasons of weather in a day, and it’s a complete shock to the system for humans, wildlife, pets and plants when it happens. Snow in October would be very unusual here in Wales, but I have seen it in November.

    I hope your autumn colours last a few more weeks before the leaves fall, leaving the trees bare for winter.

    Here’s my entry — one of my favourite photos.

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    • Green Bluff has over 50 farms in the area, Hugh. This stop has the best pumpkin butter so I stocked up for the season. Our autumn put on a delightful show, but with rain and wind and more snow expected most leaves are making a pretty carpet for now.

      Wow, that is a beautiful images! Leaves strewn on a stone staircase–just stunning!

      FYI, WP reached out to me about the content scraping and I alerted the blogger and she is working with them to fix the issue. Thanks for listening yesterday! Have a great week!

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      • I forgot to ask if Hans was driving the train this year, Terri. Or was that on another farm?

        I’m so pleased to hear how WordPress responded. So many bloggers always give negative feedback about them, usually when what they are doing is causing the problem rather than being a problem with the site.

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      • Hans did drive the train this year at the little farm in our neighborhood. In the picture, that farm had a train but he wasn’t the driver, LOL!

        I believe the WP engineers are here to help. They responded quite quickly to my email. I’ve had good luck over the years myself when there have been issues.

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