Fall on the Farm

No, not the verb but the noun, as in "The leaves are lovely during the Fall in New England".
The other day I received a hand-written letter from a friend. She started her letter with "Maple trees turning red,no more hummers at the feeders, kids wearing long pants to school, horses beginning to look fuzzy-could a snowflake be far behind?" What a lovely image of Fall in New England. Yesterday, while out driving I started thinking about all of the wonderful sights, sounds and smells of the season. Of course there is the lovely horse smell, but also the aroma of leaves, pine tree scent, and the moist earth under foot. One of my favorite scents, which always remind me of late Fall, is the aroma of wild grapes. Sometimes I'll stop and grab a bunch, from a vine, to eat while trip-tropping along down the trail. I have  decided that full size horse clip-clop, and miniature horses trip-trop. Trip-tropping is a sound, as is the breathing of my horse. There is sometimes the sound of splashing water if the dogs are lucky enough to find a stream or pond. Yesterday, I heard a strange sound and soon realized that my dog, Windsor, had run into deer fencing. The path I was on was once a railroad bed so fencing had been installed to prevent deer from running onto the track. There is obviously still some around and Windsor happened to find it. Just when I thought I would have to save him, he located a spot where the fence was down and hustled to safety. When there is a breeze I could hear the sound of the leaves and twigs falling to earth. Occasionally the dogs would bark at some unknown monster lurking in the woods. There is the sound of my voice speaking to the dogs and horse. Sometimes I sing, which I only like to do in private, or in a large group of people. Of course, another New England favorite sound is the sound of crunching leaves under foot, or in my  case, under hoof. Visually there is a cornucopia of sights. The beautiful colors of the plants-Brown and yellow oak leaves. Red, yellow and orange maple leaves, Orange sassafras, yellow aspen and birch, the shades of green pine trees. Then there are the red Winterberries, purple asters, yellow goldenrods. The colors of the earth, moss and grass. If the dogs are off exploring I may see a squirrel or a rabbit run across the path. But my favorite sight of all is one that I can see during all of the seasons. That is, needless to say, the sight of my horse.