I’m spent on the whole “counting in French” thing…besides, I had to switch to Latin in honor of my first Latin instructor, Mandan’s beloved Ed Axtmann, who passed away this week.

This was when the fall colors were just starting to emerge, at the “abandoned” Binek mine.  Yes, someone still lives at the site, although it ceased operation long, long ago.

Open air outhouse – if you’ve really gotta go or don’t have a thing for modesty, feel free.

See the capitol hanging out beneath the boughs of this tree?  It sits along Apple Creek Road.  Still got a little bit of green in there…

This row is south of Bismarck in the wildlife management area.  I caught just the right skies, but getting the sun in the right position behind those branches was a challenge.

This is a tree I spent plenty of time photographing.  I even got full of all kinds of crunchy and pokey stuff lying beneath its branches.  Might be fun to revisit it later and post the results of that half-hour dalliance.

Have I exhausted my quiver of fall photos from 2017?  Hardly.  Even as the cruel North Dakota wind threatens to strip these trees bare, I’ve already got plenty of fun photos so far.  And I’m not ruling out a few more before we’re left with nothing but sticks and bare branches for the winter!