Fall City, Granite Falls, Falling in Love with Fall, Part 1

Fall is my favorite season. The leaves, the smell of salmon carcasses, ripe manure, spawning, briskness, clarity.

Until Winter. Then I'm a prisoner of snow, the smell of smoke from a woodstove, getting cozy, hot drinks.

Then Spring.... You get the idea. My stepson, the SingingCyclist, often asks which I like better: this or that. I'm just not a this or that guy. I love them all!

So right now, I'm infatuated with Fall. What follows is a two-part album of Fall pictures from my weekend Permanent: the SIR #0850 UW-Granite Falls-Fall City Permanent.



A barn I happened upon.




And the horses that called this barn home.





See ya next time, pals.



Above is a sign by local police calling out why the liquor privatization initiatives in Washington State (I-1100 & I-1105) are bad news. They will cut local law enforcement by stripping millions in revenues from local communities even while they increase access to hard liquor from 315 outlets to over 3300. Bad news, indeed.

UPDATE: Initiatives 1100 and 1105 did fail. For randos, that means that in Washington State, car drivers can't buy hard liquor at a convenience store until 2am and drive on down the road after the bars close and we're out there with our faithful blinkies in the dark. A small but real consolation. Hard liquor can still be bought in State Stores that close much earlier and do a proven much better job at not selling alcohol to minors. For full disclosure, I worked hard in my day job to help defeat these initiatives. Yippee, we won!

Now that is not to say this randonneur doesn't like his post-brevet drink. Deed I do! A little Scotch can be just right!

Not everyone agrees with the way I look at things though, and this ring-nosed bull got a little irritated as I focused in on him.

Here, he's pawing the ground and feigning coming toward me.

But I backed him down with my heart forward approach, and we became friends.

Like many Fall days, this day had many moods. Here is my bicycle just after crossing the Skykomish River near Monroe. The Sun was out, the sky had blue patches, and my bicycle fairly shone. But that was just one moment.

In Part 2, we'll discern this coming Winter's weather with the help of one of our critter pals, and we'll also see whether another critter pal is in contention for a world record.

Keep it Falling,

CurioRando