Sunny Halloween!

This Halloween has turned out to be a sunny day......amazing, after a run of nasty weather last week! The very rainy day last Saturday turned into a very blustery day on Sunday. We'd had so much rain and gloomy weather, it was discouraging. To my surprise, Monday dawned bright and sunny! And now here we are today with more cheery sunshine and a current temperature of 68ºF/20ºC. It just makes a body feel good!

Halloween Cats!

Fiona and Tux Junior were enjoying the afternoon sunshine when I went up to feed them yesterday.

Tux was playful in this morning's sunshine.....



......running from one fence post to another.

Sad to say we lost his daddy, the original Tuxedo, when he was hit by a car in the road last May. We've been mostly lucky about not losing our cats to the road for quite a while, but sometimes one of the kitty's gets careless (or unlucky).

Pete was soaking up yesterday's sunshine.



Kathy, Kylie and friend, Jill, carving pumpkins in 1987

Anita was asking how we're going to celebrate Halloween.

Since we no longer have any children at home, our Halloweens are rather quiet these days. When the kids were home we would always carve pumpkins, and spend time trying to decide what to dress up as. Then I would have fun creating the costumes. They used to have a parade at school back then, but they don't do that any more at our school. In our elementary school they do have individual classroom Halloween parties for the kids though.

There would also be a party at our church, which we'd attend after I took the kids out 'trick or treating'. That custom, for those of you in countries that don't celebrate Halloween, and might wonder, is going from house to house in the neighborhood to collect candy and other treats, such as apples.

Kylie, myself and Andrew in 1977. I was dressed as Farrah Fawcett of Charlie's Angels fame :)



Here are our grandsons picking out their pumkins last year. Unfortunately we're not close enough to spend Halloween with them, but we do enjoy all the photos their mom and dad take. They like to take the boys to a local pumkin farm each year. They always have a great time finding just the right pumpkin. Last year we did visit before Halloween and took them lovely big pumpkins from our garden. It wasn't a good year for pumkins and squash this year with all the rain we had. We only got a few rather small ones.



"This is the one, now if I can just carry it home!"



Happy Halloween everyone!

Pleasant Pheasant!

Click on the photo for a better look

Last Saturday I looked out the window and noticed a hen pheasant pacing slowly and inquisitively up the lawn between a couple of our gardens. You guessed it, I grabbed the camera and ran to the closest window! She saw me, but didn't seem perturbed by my presence.

People sometimes raise them and set them free to be hunted. I see the males occasionally, wandering on the side of the road as I drive to and from work. I've never seen one in our yard before though, and this is my first hen sighting.



She found a good vantage point in this garden, somewhat hidden, but luckily, still visible. Very curious she was.

I wanted to find my hubby, who was working outside, so he could see her too, so I threw on a coat, hat and boots (there was an icy wind blowing) and went out the back door, camera in hand of course. Wouldn't you know it, there were 3 cats waiting for me by the door (there's always at least one). I couldn't see the pheasant anymore, so I moved toward the garden wondering if she was still there. Not a smart move....I can't go anywhere outside without at least one cat in tow. Grady immediately sensed her presence and went into stalking mode. Out she came from her hiding place in the garden, and off she flew, over to the hedgerow across the road!

Oh well, at least I got 3 pictures from inside the house. I didn't really expect her to stand still and pose for me outside anyway :) Perhaps she'll visit again sometime. I hope so.



Colorful mums


There hasn't been much opportunity to get the fall cleanup work done outside because of the

nasty weather that has continued over the past week. Dreich (yuk/miserable) weather Claire of Claire's Garden in the Scottish Highlands calls it :)

The chrysanthemums look bright and pretty on the front porch, but have spent most of their time inside because I don't want them ruined by the rain and wind. I've taken the containers and baskets off the porch now because we're having frosts at night. I'm slowing cleaning them out for winter, but some are still blooming nicely inside by our sliding glass doors and on our enclosed, unheated side porch.



The ivy has turned a lovely reddish brown. I don't remember noticing this before. Having the digital camera has vastly improved my appreciation and observation of the beauty of nature.



Such a lovely blend of colors.



A few Gloriosa daisies are still bravely struggling to bloom.



and Halloween is just around the corner! Don't the days just seem to fly by?

My voice is back this week, but I'm still very croaky. I had the great pleasure of talking to Val on the phone last Tuesday night. Some of you know that she's visiting her parents and family in California at the moment. It was just a short chat because unfortunately, I developed a tickle in my throat and couldn't stop coughing. We're going to chat again next week when I hope to be totally over this croaking and coughing. She sounded exactly like I thought she would! Sue said the same thing when they chatted last week :)

Too Many Thoughts

Misty morning

Do you ever have too many thoughts and just can't seem to sort them out to put into a post? That's what it's been like for me this week.



Rainy day

We've had rainy days with a little bit of pleasant weather in between, but it's hard to remember, since there hasn't been much of it. Certainly not enough to get many of my fall gardening chores done. When it's not raining the ground is too soggy to work in. Perhaps we'll be lucky and get some balmy November days (wishful thinking).



This is the last fence that Ross built. He planted 2 American Bittersweet plants by it. The birds love the berries it produces.

I'm finally getting my voice back after much croaking over the past week. It's been a quiet week for my hubby :)



Freestalls

I've taken lots of photos around the farm of the fall colors during October. This was the same rainy day as all the above pictures.


Looking up towards some of our woods



Front view



Our "invasive" burning bush

Ross read an article recently which said that some states are banning the sale of burning bush because it's taking over the native plants. Ours grows so slowly I doubt it will be a problem :)



Birds on the wire. We've had lots of starlings around lately.



Up behind the barn



.....where some of the machinery is parked



The cow barn, now empty, except for cats!



Over near Gran's house.....



...some bright colors, now gone.

There are still some leaves on the trees, but most of them are falling rapidly.



And lastly, Murphy having fun in the Maple tree. Check out those paws!

Thanks for all the get well wishes everyone. It's so nice to have such wonderful blog friends :)

Photo Friday with a Friend

Last Friday was spent in a very pleasant way....You'll notice on my sidebar a link to "Photos-Judith Polakoff"

Judith and I have been communicating by e-mail and sometimes phone, since we discovered that we live only about an hour apart here in upstate NY. She takes the most amazing photographs, which you'll love seeing when you click the above link. I'm really hoping she'll post a few of the photos she took.

Several weeks ago Judith suggested that we get together and take some pictures of the Fall foliage, which I thought was a wonderful idea! We finally managed to do that last Friday, a little late for the peak colors, but we did find some leftover patches here and there.

She came over to our farm and we wandered around, but didn't really find a lot of color left here. This first picture was taken as we walked back from the river.

The weather didn't cooperate very well, unfortunately. An icy wind was blowing and clouds kept blocking the sun, so it actually wasn't very pleasant to be outside.



Annabelle and Pete

She took lots of photos of the kitties.... don't they fit in well with the Fall color scheme? :)

country road

After lunch we drove to a pretty area up on the hill above our farm. There are some very picturesque country roads to be photographed, which surround a lovely little lake.



Lovely light

Being inside the car was much more pleasant than being out in the cold wind and by that time the clouds had dispersed a little.



Here's the lovely lake at the top of the hill



Long shadows



Colorful leaves



We drove back along a road which looks over the valley where our farm is nestled, down below that tree line. It can't be seen from up here......



.....but the view of the valley is wonderful!

I really got lucky this morning and was able to post whole pictures!!

So I'm feeling blessed by Blogger :)

I'm home with laryngitis after developing a sore throat last Friday night. I didn't think being out in the cold would actually give you a cold, but it's happened to me a few times in the past, so who knows? Perhaps I was already coming down with the bug and the timing was just coincidental.

The upside is it's giving me a bit of time for blogging, and that's always welcome!

It's another rainy day here in upstate NY!!!

Craft Show at Letchworth

The top of the gorge at Letchworth State Park

It was a very successful craft show last weekend at this beautiful park, with huge crowds, perfect weather in the mid to high 70's (around 23ºC) and lots of brilliant sunshine. It's a very popular show and covers a large area, with hundreds of craft booths.

Under the trees were some wonderful picnic settings which the crowds took advantage of.



When I walked through the trees, over to see the view, there were about 7 turkey vultures soaring over the gorge. The light was too bright to get a good picture so this is overexposed, but I like the way the light is shining through the bird's wings.



After the show closed on Saturday, Chris and I drove down to the bottom end of the park to see the waterfalls. The gorge winds for 17 miles through the park.



Here at Inspiration Point you can see a wonderful view of the Middle and Upper Falls. The Lower Falls is further back and quite a treck to get to, so we didn't take the time to see it. The sun was setting and the light was beginning to fade. It was about 6:30Pm and I was surprised the pictures came out as well as they did. I thought we'd be too late to get any decent shots.



The Middle Falls



And again

There weren't a lot of bright reds in the fall colors this year, but still, they were gorgeous.

The really spectacular colors appear when the season is dry. That's not an adjective that applies to the spring and summer we've just come through!

The leaves are falling rapidly here at home, and the fall colors will soon be all gone. It's such a brief burst of beauty, but so lovely while it lasts!

Like Alice, I had trouble posting these pictures tonight, with some of them posting as only half a picture. Is anyone else having the same problems with the updated, supposedly improved (ha!) Picasa? It's a royal pain in the neck!!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend :)