FALL BY MYSELF

Saturday Arnold was still under house arrest as the 10-day bed rest ordered by the doctor was not yet up. Saturday is our P-day (preparation day) where we do all our chores, shopping, sightseeing, anything we want within mission rules. Usually, we write without using the word "I" so as to not reflect who is actually writing as it is "our" mission, and we always check with each other before finalizing the writing. This will be an exception. I, JoAnn, had a day all by myself. I left Arnold patiently obeying the doctor's orders and with camera in hand, I took off. As I don't get the camera very often, I began experimenting with taking some pictures. It was fun and funny - as you will see - what I came up with.
This is right around the corner from our apartment and is where we typically park our car. This building is come sort of government building and has armed guards at the entrance. We are not sure what they do here, but it looks important. Next to the government building is the Cours de Justice (courthouse). We often park in front of this building also. It is a very busy place and there usually is no parking at all during the day. We have to come home from work a little late each day so that we can find a parking place.
The buildings are pink and grey with a lion on top of each tower. There are two sections just like this one to the right of the picture above this one.
These great fall colors are just around the corner from our apartment right in the middle of Mons. They are so vivid right now, but will fade all too soon.

I drove the car towards Soignies, which is a town near here where there is a McDonald's that has free Internet. This is the most beautiful time of the year. The leaves are all turning and interesting things appear that have to do with this harvest time that I have not seen before.
I saw this huge mound and thought it was dirt but when I got closer found that it was a huge mound of potatoes. There is a small roundabout near here where the trucks evidently take the turns too fast, as there were potatoes all over the road there. A couple had a large shopping bag and were hurriedly trying to pick them up whilst dodging traffic. It was worth a picture, but there was not a good place to stop, and I am not sure they would appreciate being photographed gleaning potatoes from the middle of the roundabout.Further on down the road, I spotted this mound that was close to a place to park, so I was able to get some up close pictures. It looked a lot like the mound of potatoes but on closer look I found that they were much bigger than potatoes and oddly shaped.
When I showed the picture to Arnold, he thought that they were probably sugar beets.
They are harvesting everything now. This used to be a corn field. They must use the corn for feed, as they had a large machine out there that was cutting into the corn field and shooting out the resulting chopped up corn and stalks. They then loaded them into huge trucks.
This field has not been harvested yet. Not sure what it is, but this is typically the color of green here - almost a chartreuse. It is beautiful next to the trees that are turning those spectacular fall colors.
More pretty trees in the field where the pony usually is. He was back in the corner, so I could not get his picture this time. There were such beautiful trees, etc., but it was too hard to find a place to stop. They have no shoulders on these country roads. So, I stopped in front of a house to take the picture of the sheep and this bright red bush. This bush was right at the corner of the lot where the house stands. When I walked back to my car, the owners of the house were just coming out of their driveway. They stopped until I got there and then said something in French. I went up to the car and said that I didn't speak French. He gruffly said to me in English, "Are you taking pictures?" I gave him my very most innocent Grandma smile and said, "Yes, of the pretty colors." He laughed and said, "Have a nice day."

I then drove on to a little town called Tubiz (2 Bees). It is a charming little town that actually has some parking near the stores, so I went window shopping.
They have these cute hanging flower baskets all up and down the main street. This picture also shows the brick buildings that are so typical of this part of Belgium. They all use bricks but different colors. It is quite pretty.Here is a closer look at the hanging baskets and the people crossing sign.

This shows how much of a novice I am at taking pictures. I was too far away for the flowers but got a great shot of my hand and camera in the mirror.

I found a wonderful "tissue" store here. That is what they call anything made out of material. They sold some wonderful Belgium linens and I bought this Fall table runner to remind me of this nice day.

There were these colorful hands every several blocks. I am not exactly sure what they stand for but they were too fun to pass up.

Back in Mons, I took this picture of a red tree-lined street with the bell tower in the background.

This is one of those trees up close. The sky was spectacular. What exciting colors.

The following pictures were taken on Sunday at the Mons Branch. The funny thing about this red tree is that it is only red on this side. The other side is all yellow. A "two-faced" tree.

Leaves covering the grass underneath the tree.This is the other side of that red tree - notice the leaves are all green or yellow.

Sister Mendenhall, one of the sisters in the ward, came up to me after Sacrament meeting and shared this cute story. When they drove up to church, her daughter said to her, "Where is the brother elder?" Her mother asked her, "Who?" The daughter said, "Well, there is the sister elder, where is the brother elder." Her mother then noticed that I was getting out of the car by myself and her daughter was wondering where Arnold was. She evidently thinks "elder" and "missionary" are synonymous.

This tree is at the other side of the church and is yellow on all sides.

All in all, I had a wonderful time all by myself enjoying Fall in Belgium, but I can hardly wait to share it all with the brother elder, whom I missed terribly.