The Fall is falling

Well, now that we are well into October, I can feel that Autumn is upon us. Aside for the occasional nippy morning, the leaves of the trees are starting to change colour. I could first notice it happening on one of the trees visabile from my bedroom window, as it slowly morphed to a bright yellow. Some of the other trees are now starting to follow suit. Unlike home, where entire trees will change colour more or less at once, many of these trees are changing in patches and start losing the coloured leaves while major portions of the tree still is green. I find that a little dissapointing, but what can you do?
I went for a walk last weekend try out some hiking trails south of town. I'm only about a 15 minute walk to the country side, so I have gone hiking a couple of times already. The bumbleberries season is just to it's end now, and I am surprised to seer how many berries have been overlooked by people and birds. I have learned how to identify some of the best bumbleberries and the best way to pick them. (Avoid the ones too close to stinging nettle - the sweet taste is not worth half an hour of pain!) Colchester is a military town, so seeing milatry signs here and there is pretty common-place. I was surprised, however, to find myself hiking through an active milatry training site. Once in a while along the path signs would remind you not to pick up or kick anything that looks suspicous. Needless to say, I was quite vigelent to stay on the path!
There has been a couple of days of foggy weather, where it is a little depressing not to be able to see the sun for the entire day, but I'm surprised how warm the fog is. I guess just like clouds, fog has insulating value. (Bill Bryson calls fog as clouds too lazy to get up into the air.) As many parents and people who work with children know, the outside environment can really affect the inside environment. Some of the students have been off the wall, especially on the more dreary days. I wonder how it's going to be in the winter... (Colchester is about 53 degrees north of the equator, so our winters will be really dark for a long time.)
Sometimes as I by train, I able have some interesting conversations with other travelers. Last month I struck up a conversation with a German woman working for the BBC in London as a researcher. Yesterday, I noticed from the identification on the bags that a fellow Canadian was on the train. It turns out the guy used to live in Germany for three years, not too far from where I was when I was working as a nanny. He is an entertainer, and was on the cast of Wayne and Shuster for several years. The performance that he was in that is seen most in syndication is the "Shakespearean baseball" sketch. He spent a lot of time talking about his experiences and the like. He also updated me with the current hockey standings, too. In all it was very interesting. I wonder who I will get to meet next time...
Kevin