Autumn in Kentucky: October 2015

Hola! I'm here with a Saturday post to show you some beautiful October leaves here in Kentucky.

This (above) was the view of the road right after leaving my house. That is, until the leftovers of Hurricane Patricia went through the area, viciously taking down those oh-so-gorgeous October leaves we had going on. Well, boo to you Hurricane Patricia. We were having the most beautiful fall that I can remember around here. 

That could be because 2 years ago, we spent October in Oregon and last year we spent the last 2 weeks of October in Mexico... Hmmm...

At any rate, the hillsides have been awash of gold and red, with the occasional evergreen poking out here and there. If I were to go back and take pictures today (these were taken last weekend), everything would look vastly different. Plus, they would all be gloomy and gray and who wants to look at those right??

Moving on.

Where the hubby and I live is pretty rural, but believe me, if you kept driving past our house for a couple of miles, you'd end up even farther in the country than we are. That's where the hubby and I headed to take pictures. 

Because I love taking pictures of old barns.

And the random animals I run into. I ran into this trio across the street from the old barn above. The old pup was really friendly, he ran right up to me and jumped on me. I'm always amazed at just how big hound's paws are. You never expect them to be that big. I gave the stinky fellow (he smelled like horse. Not a dog. A horse.) a few pets, and then the hubby and I headed back down the road again.

And the ol' hound went back to his horses.

Another old barn :)

We have a covered bridge not too far from where we live, maybe 5-7 miles down the road. I've always wanted to get a couple of pictures of it, but never seem to have my camera.

Of course, the local young-n's have Sharpy-ed all over it. Kids will be kids.

Just a gorgeous piece of history. It was actually built in 1855, to accommodate a local mill on the other side of Tygart's Creek. It scares the bejeezus out of me going over and through it, but it is cool to look at it :-)

Here's some more info on the Bennet's Mill Bridge.

Next we headed east, towards Ashland, on the way to my sister-in-law's. A couple days prior, we'd gone to her house and the leaves along the way were too pretty. I knew I had to come back and get some pictures along the highway. 

This highway is extremely rural. It's only every so often you see a house from the road, tucked away in a holler, like the one above. 

I love when the evergreens are nestled in with the colored leaves. Reminds me of Oregon :-)

We also hit up the downtown Greenup park. Where we noticed that there weren't so many pretty leaves around the water. So we left. But not until after I got a quick pic of the hubby. Hehe.

And some duckies.

My view from where I normally run. I run along an old logging road along the Ohio river, where I can see the Kentucky hills just on the other side. I love the view of those hills. 

Looking down on the town of Portsmouth, Oh from the top of Rosemount Hill. 

This area has the most gorgeous rock formations. They are so different from Oregon since most of the rock in Oregon is volcanic, while here it's mostly metamorphic. I know, I know. Science geek here. But the two kinds of rock really do look completely different.

Little tunnel going under the railroad.

I had to stop when I saw this old barn nestled against that gorgeous hillside. Again, the colors of the leaves were just amazing this fall!

They had cows too :-)

Meanwhile, back at the homestead- So, I decided to plant some greenery this fall. Dipping a toe in the water for fall gardening, if you will. I must say, arugula and kale grow immensely better in the fall than they do in the summer. Like, 1000% better. The arugula was eaten by critters days after it sprouted in June. Now, planting on September 15, it was left alone and the box is going crazy! I was even able to harvest some the other night for a salad. 

Spinach. The bane of my existence. It hasn't done well here in the summer or the fall. I'm not sure if they were bad seeds or what, but pretty much all I have are these little seedlings that never seem to get bigger. It's a mystery. 

Growing more salad lettuce, with celery behind it. I grew red venture celery this year, and I probably won't again. It grew all summer, and never really reached it's potential. I'd be willing to try growing regular celery next year.

Kale. I actually have leaves this fall, which I never did during the summer.

And my radishes! Wow! I'll be growing lots of fall radish next year as I have discovered I love fall radishes. This is perplexing and crazy to me, because I've always hated radish. Turns out, I just hate that harsh bite it has. Fall radish do not have that. They are sweet and delicious. Not only that, but they grow like champs here. They get this big in about 30 days! 

I've got a whole other pot of arugula that's just sprouted, soon to be on the dinner table.

One of my garden buddies :-)

All 3 garden buddies. Saying "It's COLD! Let me in!"

Happy Halloween friends! Stay warm, dry, and safe out there tonight! Here's a of couple flashback pics from 2009 to celebrate the holiday-

That's baby Gizmo!