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A furry black and orange creature with clawed feet and crushing, opposable mandibles has been spotted crossing local roadways and paths including the Huckleberry Trail in the New River Valley. Witnesses describe the creature as “cute,” and Virginia Tech entomologist Eric Day does not seem alarmed.

The woolly worm, also known as the woolly bear caterpillar, appears when fall sets in as it searches for a place to overwinter and later pupate. In midsummer, it is seen again, but has transformed into the Isabella tiger moth, Day said.

Folklore suggests that careful reading of the caterpillar’s black and brown pattern can predict the length and severity of the winter. The more black in its fuzzy coat, the longer and harsher the winter, some say.

Science suggests something different can be predicted, primarily how much of a glutton the caterpillar is.

“The middle orange band gets bigger and bigger the longer they feed. If you have a really small black area on the woolly worm it just means they had a really good summer and they had a lot of good feeding,” Day said.

Day welcomes the benevolent creature’s arrival, since he says it isn’t a nuisance or destructive like other fall and winter insects that frequent homes. He associates it with the coming cool weather and the turning of the leaves.

“It’s a harbinger of fall,” he said .

-- Justin Cook | The Roanoke Times

Looking back on my childhood, leaves are my favorite memory of fall.

I don’t remember the raking as being fun, but I did help my dad when I had to.

The fun would begin when my brothers and I would gather the smaller piles into one huge pile and jump into it. We would even jump off a swing to land on top of the pile.

Leaves on the ground now are more for looking at and less for play. When the time comes to rake them out of my yard, I can’t rake them into a huge pile on the curb anymore.

I live in Roanoke,  where residents must place them into plastic or biodegradable paper bags. The bagged leaves will be picked up by the city and later be turned into compost.

The best alternative, though, is to use a special mulching blade for your mower so the leaves are chopped up small enough to be used as fertilizer for your grass.

-- Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times

The smell of autumn rises from Ann DeMaury's basement.

It's the scent of cinnamon, cloves, sugar, apples and a little something special cooking in DeMaury's 40-gallon copper kettle during apple butter season at Ann's Apple Butter in Botetourt County.

"Of course you have to wait until the apples are ripe, so usually about mid-September we'll get started and I'll stay busy, six days a week, right up through January," she said. "Well, I'll finish by January if I'm lucky," she added.

An apple butter-making day starts with labeling jars from the previous day's canning, then a pallet of apples is brought in by tractor and the chopping, ricing (making apple sauce), cooking and spicing begins.

At 4 p.m., the apple butter has been cooking for hours and is ready for canning. Family members and kids from DeMaury's church form an assembly line to pour, top, wash, dry and assemble jar after jar of apple butter in a spicy steam cloud.

"It gets a little warm in there early on," said DeMaury, "but by January you're thankful for the warmth.

She'll eventually can around 13,000 quarts, many of which will go to local restaurants and food shops.

DeMaury is a second-generation commercial apple butter producer. Her father engineered machine-powered apple peelers and sauce churners when he began in the early 1970s. She took over in 1997 and has vendors from Northern Virginia to Georgia.

She has had desperate customers from as far away as Arizona call trying to find her apple butter.

"If they'll pay the shipping, I'll box it and send it to them."

Video and story by Sam Dean/The Roanoke Times

An olfactory cocktail of body sprays, colognes and perfumes began to permeate the hallway.

"Should we go in now or what?" That question could be overheard bouncing around groups of teenagers in evening wear.

At 7:47 p.m., a line of Lord Botetourt High School students began to snake through the hallway toward the gymnasium for the Daleville school's 50th homecoming dance, "An Enchanted Evening."

Pillars made from white cardboard adorned with red sashes lined the hallway. The walls were covered with butcher paper painted to mimic a castle facade. A string of white lights on both sides of the hallway lead to the entrance of the gymnasium, where hip-hop dance hits were being played by two men and a laptop connected to speakers.

A girl wearing a silver dress, cradled by her date, greeted her smiling friends, each dressed in navy and metallic pink gowns, with a hug and: "Oh my God, you look so cute." The hugs did not smear their makeup, but their grins did get wider. After a few more complimentary exchanges, they went their separate ways down the hall to connect with fellow classmates.

With the dance in full swing by 8:58 p.m., several students still remained in the hallway. One couple could be seen stealing a kiss near the drinking fountain while pairs chatted near the doors to the gym, happily greeting those who entered the hallway.

As Eric Clapton's slow dance ballad "Wonderful Tonight" hummed into the hallway, plans for after homecoming were being finalized by friends at 10:06 p.m. With the dance winding down, groups of dates began exiting to the hallway to start their goodbyes and to start their night after the enchanted evening.

Story and photo by Jared Soares l jared.soares@roanoke.com l 981-3394

Most people think you just put a couple of seeds in the ground and get pumpkins.

"It's not that simple. There's always something to worry about," said Dan Brann, a farmer, who is retired from the Virginia Cooperative Extension. Brann relies on special fungicides and a well-managed irrigation system.

Brann started with a home garden, a lawn mower and trailer. He and his young daughters sat at the end of their Christiansburg driveway and sold the pumpkins. One year a man from North Carolina bought a pickup load and said, "If you can grow pumpkins of this quality, I'll buy a trailer load." This was the first of many trailer loads to follow.

Brann and Chuck King have partnered for 10 years growing pumpkins for the wholesale market on 25 acres. They will produce about 40,000 pumpkins that they sell primarily to Walmart stores in the area. Brann appreciates their willingness to support local growers.

Joan Wolf, who works at the farm, cuts each pumpkin from the vine, one at a time. She started cutting pumpkins when her son was young and she wanted to teach him how to work. He grew up and left home, and she continued.

"Joan has a pattern about cutting. She's figured out the lay of the land, and the direction of the sun. It's a system; a method," King said. "We have to slow her down so we can catch up."

By Sept. 17, the first loading day, Wolf had cut between 5,000 and 10,000 pumpkins in less than a week. A makeshift pumpkin brigade of 15 Virginia Tech agriculture fraternity brothers tossed the 10- to 15-pound pumpkins like basketballs from the field to the tractor-trailers. It's a workout. The agriculture fraternity house earns a contribution by working 15 hours each year. They arrive midafternoon and work until the orders are filled, often as the sun is setting. "Every year one gets rotten and someone sticks their hand through it and it's not pleasant," said Spencer Arey, 19.

-- Stephanie Klein-Davis