While we’re all seizing the last gasps of good weather before we retreat to our desks for the winter, we thought we’d share some pictures of fall in Maine, and the things we see and celebrate.

At the Coastal Maine Botanical Garden:

from  Kathy/Kaitlyn: These three photos were taken in my back yard in the Western Maine mountains.

In this shot with all the blue sky, if you can pick out four little white dots, those are airplanes, heading for a fly-in somewhere to the north.

One of my favorite memories from fall happened when I was duck hunting in North Union. I took a break on a knoll overlooking Medomak River and spent half an hour watching milkweed silk lift off and rise into a pure blue sky. It was mesmerizing watching them until they became too faint to see. Below are three photos to celebrate fall-John Clark

South of Millinocket looking at Katahdin

Has there ever been a more prolific mushroom crop?

Part of our basil crop.

Susan Vaughan: One of my favorite places in Maine is the Coastal Botanical Gardens in Boothbay. Year round, the displays and fountains are spectacular. But there’s nothing like visiting on a sunny October day.

In autumn, their botanical decorations are dramatic and colorful. Along with mums and other fall plantings, there are pumpkins galore of all sizes, colors, and shapes.

Maureen Milliken: I had to take a trip up to Carrabassett Valley on Oct. 6 for work. The thing I covered turned out to be a bust (maybe look for an account in a future book), but the scenery was fantastic and I saw a moose. Unfortunately, she freaked out when someone (from away, I think) started loudly Facetiming someone about it (his back to the moose, of course and the person on the other end of the phone kept saying “Yeah, I can’t see it,”) Whenever I go up there, I think, “I’m going to Redimere,” the town in my books. But of course, then I realize it doesn’t exist.

Check it out:

The Carrabassett River in Carrabassett Valley.

Another one of the Carrabassett River. Can’t get enough.

The moose. She took off before I could get a good shot.

View behind the Sugarloaf Outdoor Center in Carrabassett Valley.

It was “Sugarloaf Homecoming” weekend. Exactly what it sounds like.

Lea Wait:  And how can we forget the scarecrows that appear this time of year in many towns? 

Sandra Neily: In no particular order, but being grateful to savor the fall unhurried by a summer job that’s over … and one special memory: Enjoying the view of Moosehead Lake with my rescued friend, Raven. Amazing: flowers on my desk still going strong. Hiking with Raven during our Oct. bird season. Last wave of relatives and our cousin dogs: watching squirrel TV out the back door. (Flowers there, too.) And my parents, long ago in the fall: famous height of land overlooking Mooselookmeguntic Lake (Rangeley).

Brenda Buchanan: We are inveterate beach walkers, and very enjoy the stark beauty of the shore and the very visible weather systems that sweep through in the fall. Here’s a shot taken last year of the pond behind Scarborough Beach with nary a leaf on a deciduous tree:

They call this Massacre Pond, which is where MCW alum Paul Doiron found the inspiration for his book of the same name, though the book was set Downeast.

The zinnias and the ornamental grasses in our garden have been lovely this year. Here’s a Monarch butterfly enjoying some autumn nectar:

Soon it will be time to put the garden to bed, but not yet!

We also make an annual foliage drive through the Maine countryside. Here’s a cemetery in Buxton lit by a maple tree . . .

Foliage bright enough to wake the dead.

And another nice view of Height of Land, which is over in Kathy/Kaitlyn’s beautiful neck of the woods.

Breathtaking.