For this week’s challenge, I found two royalty-free photos on Pixabay. I searched for fall foliage for the first photo and apples for the second one. While neither photo required attribution, both suggested sending a link back to the photo and supplied an easy-to-copy link. Personally, I want to give the artist credit whether it’s required or not, so I really appreciate that Pixabay provides a way for me to do so. When given the option, I will always support the creator with an attribution.

I chose the top photo because it looks almost identical to the scenery my husband and I enjoyed on our backroads foliage tour today. We traveled through a sunlit tunnel of harvest gold. I insisted we stop, and I jumped out onto the gravel road and snapped a few photos on my Iphone. A few minutes later, we crossed a one-lane bridge. Here again, I hopped out–with little room on either side of the Jeep–and captured another stunning scene:  a creek surrounded by a palette of marigold, pumpkin orange, and scarlet red. There’s something indescribably peaceful about traversing country roads on a quintessential autumn afternoon in Loudoun County. Take a peek at a video that duplicates a portion of our drive.

To close out my post, here’s a quick poem inspired by  our trip to today’s local farmer’s market…

October morning at the farmers market

Crates of crisp apples clamoring for human consumption

Pumpkin spice lattes dressed in whipped cream couture

Blood red pickled beets stabbed by tasters’ toothpicks

Peanut butter dog biscuits barking for attention

Greasy griddles sizzling with breakdancing bacon

Buttery breads and checkerboard cookies travel home

Inside paper bags and colorful cloth totes

October morning at the farmers market

What constitutes your perfect fall day? Do you frequent farmers markets in your town? Where do you go locally to get away? My students wrote all kinds of creepy stories for this week’s challenge. Do check them out!

Happy Halloween-

Mrs. Rombach