Day 274 - Red Leaves

"Everyone must take time to sit
and watch the leaves turn..."
~ Elizabeth Lawrence ~

Our pink dogwood presents a pretty fall display of red berries and leaves.

Day 273 - Wind blown

So I walk into the dining room this morning and this leaf sticking to the outside of the window caught my eye. Cool beans, I thought -- there's my "leaves" picture of the day. On closer examination, I could see that it was actually stuck in a spider web (which explained all that gross, uhmmm... bug stuff... on my nice clean window. Ewww!)

Day 272 - Can you stand another deer pic??

Y'all are going to get sick to death of deer photos, but they finally figured out the obvious so I had to record it. I took them from our bedroom window, so they're not that great, but they're the only ones I took today.

Anyway, while the fence between our yard and the field, rusty, rickety and falling apart as it is, still provides a bit of barrier, my next door neighbor took down some of the fence in his yard so he could tackle the weeds more easily. So, there's a large gap in the fence that's been there for a couple of years. Today these younguns finally figured out they could get to that nice green grass on the other side by just bounding into his backyard... which they could have done ages ago!

If you look closely, you can see red things lying on the ground. My neighbor has an apple tree, but apparently they could care less about the juicy, tender apples and preferred munching on the surrounding vegetation instead.

See Lew's Other Pics for a few more shots.

Day 271 - Baby pumpkins

Messing around again with light and shadows with these itty-bitty pumpkins I picked up for a bit of fall decor in the house.
Lew makes a wonderful light holder and second pair of hands when I'm messing! ;)

Day 270 - Baking day

This chilly, rainy day seemed made for staying inside and catching up on some baking for the freezer. Needing to use up more apples, pumpkin apple bread was tops on my list. Instead of traditional loaves, I thought mini muffins and loaves would be fun.

Day 269 - Ooops...

Almost forgot to take a picture, so this is a last minute one ... lotion on my tootsies before I go to bed.

Day 268 - Mum's the word

A sure sign of fall hereabouts is the abundance of mums that start appearing in yards, garden shops, and stores when the weather cools. When we stopped at Safeway to pick up a few items, there were masses of these yellow pretties on display .

Day 267 - Hair Care

Tonight was cut and color night, so while I was there, Dave let me look around for something yellow. His bin of hair rollers worked just fine.

Day 266 - In the catbird seat...

... the bird, that is. The hummer definitely has the upper hand here with a sturdy glass door between it eating or the cat eating it!

Day 265 - Kurious Kitty

That monster grasshopper I shot the other day has decided to hang around and has been making periodic appearances on the screened patio door. This morning it caught Zoey's attention.

hey, you wanna play??

c'mon a little closer...

curses! foiled by glass!

Day 264 - More reading material

As you may have noticed, I'm an avid fan of mystery books. At the moment, I'm following about six different author's series. My latest batch will catch me up on Davidson's culinary series and almost catch me up with Coben's sports-themed series. The others I've been following from the beginning and gobble up each new paperback as it gets published.

Day 263 - Size matters...

There's a dictionary, and then there's a dictionary! I keep the little pocket one on my desk and use it regularly. The big one lives in the bookcase, and I almost need a crane to pick it up, but it's my go-to resource when I really want to find something (or need a really big word!) ;)

Day 262 - Mini measures

Still in my stock-the-freezer mode, a new mini loaf pan will come in right handy for the single portion breads, meat loaf, and other stuff I'm making. My muffin tins have served me well, but little loaves will be more fun. :)

Day 261 - Body Armored

So I'm sitting at the computer, minding my own business, when all of a sudden I hear this "thunk" against the patio door. Thinking it might have been one of my hummers, I went over to take a look-see and saw this laaarge... as in big!... grasshopper. Seriously, the thing was at least 2 inches long, if not more.

Relatively speaking, probably not really all that big, I guess. I'm just used to the little inch-long jumpers hopping out of my way when I walk across the lawn. This dude could've made me seek cover!

Day 260 - Wildlife refuge

Our resident back-yard rodents have been frolicking and chasing one another (and the birds) pretty much all day. At one point, one of the local stray cats slinked (slunk?) ... whatever... snuck over to see what was going on. Too late! The squirrel saw it and scurried up the post to safety while the cat waited and watched from under the Japanese maple below. No dummy he, the squirrel just outwaited it until the cat finally ran off to chase something else.

P.S.
Often Lew and I end up with the same subject matter for our photo of the day. Today, it was a mommy deer and her two little ones but his photos turned out much better than mine. Do check out Lew's Pics for a darling look-see.

Day 259 - Decisions, decisions

So I was messing around with a couple of shells for this week's big theme (the larger shell is about 6" across -- big!) and took them outside for better light. Then, I couldn't decide which photo I wanted to use ...

the one on the the bench showing the insides...

or the one on the deck showing the outsides...

or maybe the one with the leaves and acorns showing... well, I didn't know what it showed, I just stuck the leaves and acorns in there because they were there. Then I thought, whoa! A perfect metaphor for seasonal transition... from summer seashells to autumn leaves and acorns.

I get all artsy fartsy sometimes! ;)

Day 258 - Humming along

I haven't been terribly creative this week so it's a good thing I have cats and visits from my trusty little hummer to fall back on.

The little guy (gal?) showed up 4 times within an hour today! I think it may be getting ready for its flight south.

Day 257 - Her peaceful place

When she's not upstairs on the bed, Zoey's next favorite spot to peacefully snooze is my chair in the family room.

Day 256 - Only 103 more days...

... so I'm getting ready. Somewhat. Instead of wrapping it all, I'm trying the gift bag route this year and took advantage of an early sale at Current. My goodies arrived today.

Day 255 - Peaceful bedtime

Curling up with a book on eyelet bedding that has been spritzed with smell-goods ensures a most peaceful through-the-night sleep.

Day 254 - A cat's a cat, and that's that...

If there is one spot of sun spilling onto the floor,
a cat will find it and soak it up.
~J.A. McIntosh~

Peaceful was created for cats and sunshine ...

Day 253 - Serenity

If there is magic on the planet,
it is contained in the water.
Loren Eisley

A sunny day, the lake, the ducks, and time spent with my guy -- it doesn't get more peaceful than that. :)

Day 252 - Sunny Acorns

Oak trees come out of acorns, no matter how unlikely that seems.
An acorn is just a tree's way back into the ground.
For another try. Another trip through. One life for another.
Shirley Ann Grau

Day 251 - Beastie boy

The picture I planned turned out lousy and I don't feel like fooling around with it any more, it's getting late, I'm tired and cranky, and ... well, that's enough whining for one day. Besides, tennis is coming on. A quickie of my Buster boy will have to do. ;)

Day 250 - Hello Hanna

About as close to outdoors as I'm gonna get today as the remnants of Hurricane Hanna roll through our area dumping lots of rain.

Eh, it's good for the grass...

Day 249 - Hands on ...

... the keyboard. Lew going through today's photos to decide which one he'll use.

Day 248 - Learning

The important thing is not so much that every child should be taught,
as that every child should be given the wish to learn.
~ John Lubbock ~

You may remember this statue from my library post in April -- it makes a good subject for hands too.

Day 247 - Bonsai bloom

Keeping a close eye on it for the past two weeks, I was rewarded today when the one bud that's been showing color finally bloomed. It's not the perkiest flower, it actually looks a little peaked, but I'm just pleased I haven't killed the thing!

Day 246 - Hand 'n the sky

Lew getting ready to cut the grass.

Day 245 - Helping hand

Lew helped me out by nicely posing his hand for this week's theme. :)