In which our weather isn't normal, and I'm not complaining too much

The Swamp is not famous for glorious displays of fall foliage. 

Alder trees make excellent firewood, but they aren't usually very pretty.

We aren't called "The Evergreen State" by accident:  our woods (especially here on the Wet Side) are often predominantly fir, cedar, and hemlock, which are, ya know, evergreen trees. 

One vine maple tree dumped all of these leaves.  The other trees here are firs.

I see spruce and yew trees sometimes when I ride, although I believe a lot of those are planted these days--since our trails are mostly Tree Farm property, the forests aren't representative of what would grow here if people didn't muck around a lot.

Evergreens above, vine maple, ferns, salal and oregon grape below.

The deciduous plants that we do have usually turn brown and soggy and then a wind comes by and blows the brown soggy off the branches and onto the ground.  It's not very romantic.

Typical mix of post-clearcut hillside:  a few fir trees, a lot of salmonberry, blackberry, nettle and vine maple.

But sometimes, rarely, we have a combination of climate conditions that make better "autumn color" photos.

This is one of those years!

Vine maple leaves are yellow and orange.

I don't necessarily love the dry conditions and cold nights that have prematurely killed off our chanterelle crop this year.  

But...

It would be hard to find gold mushrooms in this landscape, even if the
frost hadn't already killed them off.

...it's awfully pretty.

Brown bracken ferns, green fir trees.

And that...

you already know this

...is Good.