My sweet Patrick....

 Learning how to eat with utensils!  He has been nursed since birth and is almost a year old.

                                       THe newest American Idol contestant...dont ya think?

                                                       Not too happy with this costume thing

                                                                 Liking the rice and green beans

                      His Mommie's companion dog, and obviously she has decided that Patrick is no threat to her.

                                                            First Chocolate Cupcake!

                                                      He loves sleeping on his daddy!

                                                       Hey there!  wanna take a bath with me?

                                                  Such a messy boy

                                                          

This is Patrick in his 2nd Halloween costume!  Last year he was 1 week old, and they put him in a monster costume and he was a little doll!  He will be a whole Year old next THursday.  and he has gotten so BIG>

Gorgeous Fall!

 I just LOVE this time of the year!  The light in the afternoon is low and long, and casts a whole new look on the colors of fall.  We do not have a lot of color up here, as we are mostly conifer, but occasionally we get the uber dry fall which makes the deciduous trees all the more colorful.   We are going on to our 79th day of no rain.  This is a record breaker for us.  By now we normally have our first really strong wind storm and the rains drive us out of our gardens and inside to the fireplace.

 The pumpkins and squash and corn are abundant this year, leading everyone to come up with newer and different ways of displaying their gardens bounty.  You can eat it or display it, up to you, some even do BOTH,  Display it and then EAT it.

Looking out my bedroom window this morning, I saw my first squirrel in two years!  I was thrilled!  I went from a steady stream of chipmunks, grey squirrels and Douglas squirrels to NOTHING this year.  I was wondering where they had all gone.  Today a young juvenile was dashing back and forth from the bird feeder to the grass burying every sunflower and nut he could find!  SO either I will have quite a few visitors this winter, or a lot of sunflowers popping up in my sumer lawn next year.

I am cold, Think I will go build a fire in the fireplace.  just feels like one of those kind of days. 

Autumn in THe Pacific Northwest

Fall has hit with a slap this week.  THe trees are all losing their  Leaves, and the Garden is going nuts trying to push out veggies before the weather turns too nasty.  We have not had any measurable rain in over 2 months, so everything in this state is firecracker dry.  The alders behind the house are crackly dry, and the first real blow we have will push them over.  I HOPE!  They are now 40+ feet tall, and are taking over my back yard and the sun!

I am so tempted to go back there and cut notches in the East side of them all so when the wind DOES hit, (and it will_) they will all fall to the east and open up the forest again.  THere are a few evergreens in the forest, but this has been logged over about 40 years ago, and the weed trees took over.

TOnight and last night we have had a beautiful Harvest Moon, but I cant see it because of the trees.  I have to wait until about now for it to clear the tree tops and by then it is high in the sky and not colorful any more.  With the eastern half of the state on fire, the smoke in the air makes for Gorgeous sunsets and rises and Moon rises too.

It has been relatively warm during the day, but cold into the 40's at night.  Quilt and blanket weather, and fuzzy socks in bed too.  I do love the cooler nights!  I am looking forward to the later Fall weather.  In October and November is when our hurricane force winds hit, and it is so neat to know that you are snug and warm and ready for them to knock out the power and blow down the trees.  I am safe.  no big trees to the West of me where the winds come roaring down the strait of Juan de Fuca and smack right into my house.  My roof is good and strong, and trees out back will fall into the woods, not over the back fence.  I wish Icould afford to buy that 50 acres, and put cows and pigs back there.  That would SURELY piss off the community.  (no livestock allowed in the development)  but the 50 acres back there is not a part of the cove.  But it belongs to a conglomerate, and they wont sell for a reasonable price.  DAMN>

Rosie the female Kitty is doing great.  I found a home for Fred, so I just have the one now, and she is turning this house on its ear.  she rules the roost!  Is a bit intimidated by the resident old fogey, Schroeder, who sits under the bed and growls and hisses at her, but she is learning to just swat back.

Well by bed should be warm by now, hope this works I used a different button to get to my Blog this time.