Melancholy Monday: Mellow mix

We’ve just returned from what we thought would be our last visit to the cabin for the year, but the construction projects are not yet finished, so there will need to be one more.         By the time we left, practically all the leaves from the hardwoods had fallen and—apart from the somber palette of browns and deep golds of the remaining grasses, quite lovely in their own right—the only other striking colors to be found were in the tamaracks, the goldenrod, the strawberry leaves, and the fungi.  Still, I love this time of year in the north woods, especially on a still afternoon, when the overnight chill has given way to the daily-waning warmth of the late-October sun, the first frosts have finished off the last of the mosquitoes, the first snows are yet to fall, and one can see deeper into the woods.