I know what you’re thinking … Linda planned her day just so she could use alliteration in her headline.
Nope, if I was to pick a headline, a better one would be to borrow Gordon Lightfoot’s lyrics “the gales of November came early” from the song “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”.
After yesterday’s afternoon and evening of rain and sleety, wintry-like mix, I awoke to temps that nose-dived to a real-feel in the 20s, and a stiff North wind blowing at 15 mph. A trip to traipse around a pumpkin patch and any unpaved trail seemed out of the question.
I decided on Heritage Park and trying out another pumpkin patch, just a hop step and a jump from that park. I scoped out the grounds on Google and it didn’t require tromping around in a field, so off I went. This year I believe I’ve lost my sense of adventure in less-than-ideal walking conditions and I’ll blame my attitude on Mother Nature!
Heritage Park was just ho-hum today.
Heritage Park is always a delight to visit, especially in bright and sunny weather. Its picturesque village and scenic walking path, that winds around the entire venue, is excellent for racking up walking miles and getting some nice photos. Today not so much.
I wanted to head to this venue to view the colorful foliage, and, although Heritage Park never disappoints, this morning was a dark and gloomy day. I timed my arrival to coincide with the man who brings the cracked corn daily to feed the ducks, but I saw no sign of him and the waterfowl were rather scarce today as well.
I did take a few pictures that are included in this post.
However, exactly one year ago today I spent a morning at Heritage Park and captured some beautiful shots of the Fall foliage, as well as a male and female duck. The pair looked so companionable that I figured Mr. and Mrs. deserved to grace that Sweetest Day 2017 post with their photo
I believe this may have been the same pair because, while I was standing by Coan Lake, a male and female mallard climbed out of the water and waddled over to one of the historic houses. Just like last year, they seemed inseparable.
While today’s leaves were not as colorful as I may have liked, I noted that many of the trees had already dropped their leaves, no doubt from those 45 mph winds yesterday.
I liked these bright red maple leaves the best, and not just because I am Canadian.
Many other leaves were still wet and plastered against the walking path.
A touch of harvest décor made the Little Red Schoolhouse look festive, perhaps to welcome people at the recent open house where Heritage Park permitted tours of all the historical buildings.
I noticed some teeth marks in one of the pumpkins, the work of a squirrel, no doubt.
After multiple trips on the walking path that surrounds the park, plus an extra-long meander through the village area, I headed to the car. As I crossed the parking lot a flock of geese flew overhead.
After considerable honking, I watched them come in for a landing. They settled down close to where I had parked my car and the flock began grazing on the longish grass. Soon a skirmish erupted with wing flapping and hissing between two geese. I’m usually on the receiving end of all that venomous activity, perhaps having crossed the path way too close to them or their offspring. I guess this fracas would be the equivalent of two fighters crying out “put up your dukes” because one was incited to fight. The next thing I knew there was a ruckus as one goose rammed the other one in its side with its beak … yup, it “goosed” the other goose! Unbelievably, mere seconds later, everyone went back to grazing with no hurt feelings nor apparent casualties. This was the fractious goose, looking a might contrite here.
There were puddles everywhere on the path, and the parking lot was no exception as I watched a goose drink from a puddle to wash down that grass.
Looks kind of complicated drinking that way doesn’t it? I wished I had a straw to offer him (or her). Well, it was the pause that refreshes, as that waterfowl soon was goose-stepping away.
Harvest décor … and more.
Earlier this week I planned to go today to Laroy’s Pumpkin Patch in Romulus. It’s been years since I was there. But this morning found me Googling and perusing an alternative. Since Massab Acres was close to Heritage Park, I thought I’d stop in and try it out. I figured if it was busy, I’d head to our City’s Farmer’s Market instead.
I picked a good time because I was the only one there. I don’t imagine too many families were eager to be up and at ‘em to pick pumpkins on such a cold morning. Massab Acres is actually a nursery, but they convert part of their space to a pumpkin patch and a spooky walk, which includes a “House of Frights” and some other creepy horrors. Well, I’ve not been creeped out in a while, except for the last centipede I saw, so why not go to their Fall Harvest?
There was lots of harvest décor including straw bales, cornstalks and plenty of pumpkins which were mostly priced by the pound.
A group of them were gargantuan and misshapen as well – they’d probably take up most of your porch.
Yes, I resisted getting additional mini pumpkins for the squirrels; I strolled right past that bushel basket and paused instead to check out these colorful gourds.
There was an abundance of beautiful mums; the purple ones were my favorite.
Taking a walk on the wild side.
As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, I embrace Fall’s colors and cooler temps, even though it means Winter is on the way. I like Halloween, even though I don’t decorate for it. Massab Acres had a Halloween display, so I ventured through the spiderweb-covered archway and went on the spooky walk. I’m sharing some of the featured creatures on that trek.
It wasn’t a picture-perfect day, but since every weekend seems to feature wild and wacky weather of late, I thought I’d better just get out and enjoy it and get my miles in. I came home with red cheeks, a ton of pictures to pick through and six more miles under my belt.
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
Scary LOL
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Yes, I have some more decorations for next week on Halloween. There is a homeowner who lives on a corner and decorates a double lot with a lot of Halloween items. It must take a long time to do this. I’ll give people a break from the squirrels. 🙂
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It seems very similar to our Art Knapp’s Haloween Land that I have taken my nephew to in the past. It’s a garden nursery that decorated and has little games for kids along with a haunted train ride.
I love the gourds:)
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It was fun to go to and I noticed a lot of the decorations had come down or were loose or hanging crooked from the wind we had yesterday – it would be a massive job to get everything right again.
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Oh my! I definitely wouldn’t want that job!
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Gorgeous photos! I especially liked the ones of leaves today. Our leaves are falling, and they are still green.
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Thanks Anne -In the picture of the park bench, with the Little Red Schoolhouse in the background, there was a maple tree and the leaves were fluttering to the ground and that’s how I got the red maple leaves – so gorgeous! I stood there trying to capture the “fluttering” but it didn’t show up in the photos. Many leaves were still green here – I could go back in a couple of week’s time, but sometimes a gusty wind will blow them all down and nothing to see. Last year’s leaf peeping was much nicer. You and I love the reflection on the water and that was missing in today’s photos.
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I wish it would cool off a bit where we live. I’m looking forward to wearing boots and scarves. I love Halloween… the creepier the better. Thanks for sharing some of your seasonal changes. We don’t get as much here.
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Our seasonal change came abruptly, hitting us like a ton of bricks – this is not the norm for SE Michigan Janis … I am not usually into the heavier clothes for another month. We have a good weather week (they say) until next Sunday. I’ll have some more creepy Halloween pics to share as Halloween gets closer – really creepy, so you’ll enjoy them. 🙂 I like scarecrows, and in the past I’ve used a lot of scarecrows in my Fall posts, so I’m always looking for cute or unusual-looking ones. Yesterday’s haunt, er hunt, yielded three of them.
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I loved this post, Linda. The words you use truly wove the images you saw in my brain. As Anne mentioned, I loved the red maple leaf. And the Mr and Mrs Duck and tale of the fighting ducks and the picture of the embarrassed duck. The Halloween decorations I didn’t enjoy those pictures much as they were scary. I wondered though what Parker and friends did when it rained or snowed- hope they have a warm place to hide in.
Susie
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Thank you Susie … I always hope I can recreate my walk so that people get a sense that they traveled alongside me and I am glad you feel like you were here as well. The red maples leaves were gorgeous – my favorite too. I am sure that was the same “couple” as last year – same thing, those ducks were inseparable and the male was walking behind her … I had some pictures as they were walking side by side, but because of the dull background, the female mallard just kind of blended in. The Halloween decor is not my usual kind of post, but I included them as part of the pumpkin patch visit – next week I’ll include another post strictly for Halloween – I did a few walks in the neighborhoods which really put on a splash as to harvest decor and Halloween decor … I do like the harvest decor best, especially the scarecrows and got quite a few scarecrows to use as we go through Fall. I hope Parker and his buddies were ready for this cold blast of air which will last all week, but the weather will be cooperative – no rain/snow until next Sunday night. I must walk my socks off now to reach my goal. Are you still walking since you returned from your trip and did all the walking?
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No walking at all- back to 500 steps per day only. Attached to chair or bed most of the time.
First jet lag, then a cold, then aches and pains because of the workouts.
All excuses but that’s what happened.
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I know that once you fall off a regimen even a few days, it is difficult to get back to the swing of things, even a few days away. I know when we had that three days of torrential rain in a row, it suddenly seemed like a new concept going out for a walk, after all this time, even in the Spring when I resume my walking full-time and don’t have to interrupt it for bouts of snow or ice. We humans slide off track so easily. We all do.
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The aches on my legs keep me off, honestly. Sitting down for hours on the end, give me aches and also swelling on my feet which can be relieved only by walking but the mind is willing and my body is not.
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I know I have to get up more during the day Susie just to walk up and down the hall to stretch my legs. I am tall (5′ 9″) (175 cms) and maybe that makes it worse. It was bad before with all the sitting for work, but since the blogging has really taken off, between blogging and catching up on e-mail/Facebook, etc., it seems I am online and sitting here at least 10-12 hours per day. Being tied to a desk is not good and I am sitting at the kitchen table which is not an ideal height either. My friend Evelyn, who began grad school in August 2017, was finding with so many of her classes online, class projects/research etc. online, she was spending endless hours sitting on her butt and was become quite sore in her hips/legs as well, so she ordered a standing desk about a month ago. I must ask her again how she likes it because her initial reaction was great. At the allergist office where I go monthly for my allergy shots, the receptionist/billing person got a standing desk this Summer and she loves it. I had a good look at it and she has a fairly large monitor as well. That is an option, but my house is small, and I’m not sure where I’d put it to be honest. Are you a fan of green tea? I am not a tea drinker, but green tea is good for leg swelling. My mom had edema from sitting so much due to her medical issues, and her doctor said that drinking at least one cup of green tea was beneficial for swelling. She could hardly get that green tea down and I’ve never acquired a taste for it either, but I bought some again recently just because of all its good benefits.
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I put a couple of small pumpkins in the birds’ room. It’s when i told them that they have tasty seeds inside that they really seemed to become interested! 🙂
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You’ll have to post some pictures of Tweety and Scarlett for us to see, unless you’ve done that before I started following you Tom. Can they say the word “pumpkin” or do they have trouble saying a word with a “P” … we had a parakeet years ago named Joey. Joey could not enunciate the letter “J” so when he said “Hi Joey” it sounded more like “Hi Yoey” … he just could not master that “J” and I smile thinking of him right now. I used to decorate mini pumpkins for my desk at work and a few around the house – I made hair and hats for them … I think I was more artsy-fartsy in my younger days. Hmmm – what happened to that girl? .
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I really love the warm colors and sights of autumn! You have some very beautiful places to walk. Do you think you are going to be able to reach your walking goal this year?
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Me too TJ and that is why we both embrace Fall as we’ve discussed before, especially during those Dog Days of Summer. Your tree colors in yellow in your recent post – just wow! The vibrant reds and golden yellows are my favorite. Last year’s trip to Heritage Park was much more beautiful than yesterday’s, but the gray day didn’t help either. As to my goal, I was lucky getting out every day last week and this week we have good weather (they say as of now) until next Sunday evening, so I feel confident I can make my goal of 1,050 miles. It is darker in the mornings, so I am shaving a mile off each morning these days, getting in only 4 miles a day, but the time change is on November 4th, so if no bad weather, I should be okay. I was holding off posting a total until Halloween to say “trick or treat!” and hopefully “treat”. WWJ just said rain or snow showers next Sunday – I’ll hope for the former.
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Love your fall-themed pictures. We have a park in Lititz (PA) that is home to tons of mallards. My grandsons love to feed them. The oldest one (7) is patient enough that if he holds food out in his open hand, they will come up and eat right out of his hand. I love the red maple leaves best, too, and I’m not even Canadian! 🙂
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Thanks Laurie – it’s my favorite season. Sometimes I’ve been to Heritage Park and Coan Lake is just chock full of mallards and geese and you don’t know what to look at first. That is great they eat out of his hand. We used to have a lot more mallards at Council Point Park – they are just now coming back. We had bad algae bloom and it was so thick they could barely paddle so they were gone, but the water is clear now. I love hearing them in the morning when I walk. Their raucous quacks and some are noisier than others – sounds like someone with a big belly laugh sometimes. Those red leaves were gorgeous – so vibrant!
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My grandsons love to feed the ducks at the park. Some of them are mallards, and some are escaped domestic ducks. Some are hybrids, too.
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I like the Pekin ducks and they are beautiful and very friendly. They only have them at Elizabeth Park and the hybrid mallards with the brown and black markings are there too.
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I had never heard of the term “Pekin duck”. I had to look it up! Thanks.
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You’re welcome Laurie. The first time I went to Elizabeth Park I saw the usual mallards, but also the large white ducks and the brown and black mallards. So what did we do before Google? I looked around to find out the names of both ducks. I had never heard of either of them. They are both beautiful ducks. In this post I have pictures of the hybrid mallard and the Pekin – is this the same as your hybrid mallard? https://lindaschaubblog.net/2018/05/28/those-lazy-hazy-crazy-days-of-summer-are-happenin/
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Yes. Some of them look like that – dark with a white chest – but there are a lot of different variations. My grandsons’ favorite is an all white duck with a puffy topknot of feathers. They call that one “Grammy duck” after their great-grandmother (my husband’s stepmother), because they think the duck’s poofy feathers look like her white hair! 🙂
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Those hybrid mallard were new to me and I thought they were interesting looking. That’s a cute story about “Grammy Duck” – leave it to kids!
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We don’t have much color at all here and I don’t think we’ll get it. Our weather isn’t quite as severe as yours but it’s cold. Colder than normal.
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We are having colder than normal weather all week, but dry through Sunday – that has to be a record this year – dry for an entire week. I should feel Mother Nature’s forehead!
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What a lovely fall outing, Linda!
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Thanks Pam – in the middle of Winter with snow all around, I’ll remember days like this, even the sun-less and chilly ones.
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😘
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We love to collect Maple leaves. We played with lots of maple leaves in my parent’s house in Canada. It was so much fun:)
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I can remember as a young girl going to the woods and picking colorful maple leaves from different types of maple trees and for school we had to put the leaves on paper. My mom would iron waxed paper on top of them to preserve the leaves and we’d paste them on sheets and tie the pages together with yarn. Those were the days for you and me – simple kid fun. Do you think the kids today jump in the leaves or make “leaf books”? That was a fun part of our childhood!
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When kids were the toddlers. We visited to our parents in Canada, that time they did play with maple leaves. We collected all those maple leaves. It is a huge yard compare to here in the Bay Area.
Now kids like to play video games:) Whenever I want to tell them. Kids just listen and again busy with cell phones or computer:)
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That’s too bad because they are missing all the wonders of nature – sigh. Work on them a little more okay?
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Thanks. Yes, we will. So nice of you:)
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Dear “Miss Canadian”…………………………thanks for the Autumn tour of scary goblins and pumpkins………………
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I was glad I stopped there Ann Marie – it was just down the road on Pardee from Heritage Park. I’m glad you liked that little tour.
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LOL… I love a good alliteration. What a beautiful quintessential autumn day!!!
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I am guilty bigtime of using alliteration and have to stop myself sometimes! It was a beautiful day – we’ve had a nice week of weather, but the weekend was promised to be sunny, and they’ve changed their mind to an all-day rain on Saturday and some rain on Sunday. Hope your midterms are going well Mackenzie.
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Haha- no never stop yourself! Alliterations are great.
Thank you so much, Linda!! I am all finished up, but the work load is tough this week- as you can tell I’ve been pretty MIA. Hoping to put a post out sometime this weekend, but we’ll see! So much to do- so little time!
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I just told you to go on the swing to get through midterms in another comment … so scratch that and just take time for yourself between the rest of your work load. Running helps too I think … I know my morning walk just puts me in a better frame of mind Mackenzie. Too bad you and DJ aren’t going through this school/studying grind together and on the same schedule … makes it rough when one person has more free time than the other person.
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Aww I love that!!!
And it is definitely somewhat challenging to navigate schedules, but makes the time we have together so wonderful!!! Thanks always for your sweet and thoughtful comments, Linda 🙂
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You’re welcome Mackenzie – yes it makes you work harder to align your schedules to enjoy your time together. Before you know it, you’ll be on break. My friend Evelyn had a five-week break last year. She was off from the first week in December until the day after the MLK holiday! It was hard to get back into the swing of things again.
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The park looks amazing I would love to go there one day. Do you have any idea where it got it’s name from though?
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Hi Salwa – thank you for following my blog. I believe it got its name because of the historical buildings in there. Those are some of the oldest buildings in this city and Taylor calls Heritage Park the jewel of their city. They have moved some of these buildings from other locales around the City, like the little red schoolhouse … I believe the water wheel/mill is a reproduction, but the oldest house in Taylor is that log cabin – just amazing and you can look inside, the original windows and furnishings! I just searched for the post I did the first time I went to Heritage Park – unbelievably I passed this Park for years and never went in and I am so glad I stopped there. In this post I did in 2017, you can see the log cabin – it really fascinated me:
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Thanks Linda for your reply that is pretty fascinating 🙂
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Hi Salwa – I thought so too … it is in really good shape … they don’t build houses like that these days! Glad you found it as fascinating like I did.
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