Life Is So Good

I worry about all kinds of things; work, money, family... I'm as stressed out as many other people. But I stretched out my commute this morning for the first time in ages and it had that excellent brain-tonic effect that I have always been so grateful to cycling for. The weather was perfect, kind of cool-warm-damp-but-not-raining perfect. The path and its surroundings looked beautiful despite half of the leaves being gone. I had other reasons to be in a good mood too... FARATS entries have started to show up!

Before I show you those, though, I want to show you the gift The King bestowed upon me (for my undying allegiance, I suppose) after I paid him a visit and took this photo:

The top 3/4 of The King's branches are now completely bare. Anyway, that sneaky King stuck a leaf on my shoe. Several kilometres away from him, I looked down to find he was still with me:

The King's mark remains stuck to my shoe even as I write this:

Just call me Captain Canada, or Mr. Maple! I have made no effort to keep the leaf on there, but I have been reasonably careful not to dislodge it. I wonder how long it will stay there? I will report diligently on this matter of grave importance, I promise.

Like I said I've got one (possibly two) FARATS entries to show you. The first is from Kokorosashi of my beautiful machine:

The subject of his email to me was "FARATS entry -- woot!", and here's some info he provided about the tree:

Hallo!
Fall has finally ... finally ... arrived in Kentuckiana. Sadly, my best prospect lost most of its leaves in the course of one gusty night -- so here's my runner-up, from the campus of Indiana University Southeast, just over the river in New Albany, IN, where I go to school.
I believe that what this tree lacks in substance, it makes up in style, with its beautiful dark bark and flame-red leaves :D
Hope you're having a good Fall up there in Canada!

Woot indeed! Thanks, man.

The next picture was not considered an entry by its sender, by I'm thinking I may enter it anyway, because the photo is just so nice. I don't have a copy of the pic to post here, but it can be found by clicking this link. This one was courtesy of Keri from Commute Orlando, who said:

Well, I can't really submit an entry. Our deciduous trees go from green to brown to bare. Some of the maples get a hint of dark red. It's rarely enough to make the entire tree grand, but just for your enjoyment, here's a photo for you.And now I will enjoy autumn vicariously through you :-)

Keri, if you want to enter that picture, I will happily throw it in the mix... faced with very little tree to work with, you sent me something great, and I only stipulated that I didn't want bunches of trees. There's nothing preventing small parts of them from being considered. Think of the maple-y goodness on the line and let me know.

More, I want More!

R A N T W I C K

PS - Having served its purpose, the leaf fell off my shoe at approximately 12:55 PM Eastern. I know because I have been staring at it non-stop ever since clicking the "Publish" button. I'm gonna go find some eye drops; you enjoy your afternoon.

PPS - Keri has indicated that she would be happy to enter her picture in the contest! Here it is!

FARATS News - Timing Is Everything

FARATS, the First Annual Rantwick Autumn Tree Smackdown, is hitting a critical time. The picture you see above is not The King, but it is one of his near neighbours.

As you can see, The King is strong in comparison. What is that almost naked tree? A jester? His Queen? Who knows? Thanks to a windy Fall in most of North America, getting that great shot of a super tree has been challenging (I stole this observation from Cafiend of Citizen Rider). Even The King was hard to get a good picture of, and I was visiting every couple of days. Yesterday it was clear that The King had passed his peak of foliage related glory for this season. Something funky happened to my camera memory and I have no pics, but trust me, he's on his way down for this year. Thank goodness I caught him on what I consider his best day about a week ago.

Brace yourselves, because what follows is my official FARATS entry:

Think you can beat it? To be honest, The King looks good, but I strongly suspect that someone will topple him. In a way, that's good, because I've laid hands on the prize for the winner!

I won't lie... when I located the prize I also bought some for myself. I have tasted it and it is everything I had hoped. Jakeman's has been voted best tasting maple syrup in Canada in recent years and always places in the top ranks of most maple syrup ranker's rankings. So, the prize is a small amount (100 mL, 3.4 fl. oz.) of pure Canada #1 Extra Light maple syrup (click here to see how freaky I am about it) from one of Canada's top producers, located only about 30 minutes from my home of London Ontario.

Don't let the tiny plastic jug (rather than decorative glass) fool you... one thing I have learned about syrup is that light affects it somehow. I forget how, but it does. So there. I purchased this prize right at Jakeman's retail store, amidst (or is it among?) some of the very trees that offered up this divine elixir. I am happy to say that in all the vast variety of tinned, bottled, jarred, candied, ice-wined and other maple-ized products, this was the ONLY one that said "Our very finest" on it. Done deal. I don't like to use crude language on this blog, but I'm sorry, this stuff is the shit.

Tell me, do you want some? Send your best tree picture to rantwick at gmail dawt com (if you don't know what I mean there, you are too stupid to enter my contest no matter how great your tree is) or link to it in the comments on any of my posts. One or just a few trees only in your picture please, since I can't have a whole forest ganging up on The King. Deadline is Dec 15. I'm gonna post pics of entries as they come in, but on Dec 16 a page will go up with all entrants and a way of voting for your favourite. After a voting period ending early in 2011, the winner will receive the aforementioned maple-y awesomeness.

Yer Pal,

R A N T W I C K

PS - Some nice people I know have expressed an interest in sending me pictures of trees that are not official entries for the contest. Bring 'em on! Got an awesome mountainside of foliage madness? I'll post them with pleasure; just not in the official vote for trees post on Dec 16. Knowing this, it would be wise to be very clear that your official entry is indeed your official entry in your email or comment.