She's here...

Who's here you ask? Autumn. She's the fun frolicky cousin to that cold bitch Winter.

In case I couldn't tell by this stuff I keep finding more and more of on our walks, this is a reminder every day I drive to Ada.

Bam! Can't miss a clue like that, and I love driving by it almost daily just to see the changes from day to day. How can you not appreciate a tree like that? the other morning on my way to work I pulled over and snapped this photo because the early morning light with it's long rays from the horizon just made it so vibrant.

In fact, everything was made beautiful by the light. You know mornings like that. The ones that with the crisp air, and golden light, just make you glad to be awake and alive. Even when you're half asleep like I was feeling.

If you can't tell by my absence, I've been a bit busy as of late. I picked up a second job, and between running to and from work, getting home and cooking for us, or feeding and walking the dog, it feels I have very little down time. Tonight though, I stepped away from the spinning wheel to write a blog post.

I decided, I had some back log of two weeks at least of photos that I needed to get up here. And to just let everyone know things are good, just hectic. they'll calm down next month I hope. There's always hope, no?

We've had little warning signs that fall was quickly approaching. Like this big Katydid we found on the back porch. It would have covered most of the palm of my hand. These guys are late summer layers, and a harbinger to end of the heat as they mate and lay eggs.

And then there's the green frogs. Big guys, almost as big as Bull frogs. I saw hime sitting on this drainage grate singing while walking the boys on one of our last warmer days. I still see the wood frogs in the backyard now but even the frogs are quieting down for the winter as the nights get cooler.

And boy do we have the wooly caterpillars. I don't know what the white ones are but we have the black and red monarch caterpillars around quite a bit. In fact I have some pictures of the monarchs from a couple weeks ago that I need to get off The Guys new camera. I was out back and kept seeing more and more butterflies pass through near sundown so I finally went and got the camera and tried to snap a few. I think I got a few photos. I'll check it out and get back to you. Maybe if I say such things it will make me get back on here sooner. I've been so bad I've barely even logged on to my desktop computer. Sheeesh.

On one of our rainy days I took the boys back to Roselle pork that we haven't been to much throughout the summer since moving south of it, and spotted many a snail and worm, as well as a few late leopard frogs.

I think one of the things I love most about cooler autumnal weather, is that the house is cool enough to do more cooking. I've been cooking up soups, baking up zucchini muffins, and pumpkin bread after processing fresh ingredients. Delicious! Of course, that might be where some of my other time has gone. As for why there is binoculars in the kitchen is so that The guy can watch his bird feeders out the back window. We've noticed the grosbeaks absence and fewer and fewer finch's, but more nuthatches and woodpeckers coming to the yard as well as a blue jay or two. The ever present cardinals and the chickadees have started to show up as well. We even went so far as to put up suet the other day though it doesn't appear that it has been touched yet.

The hummingbird feeders have been cleaned and put away for the season, which is always a little sad, but fresh roasted pumpkin seeds make me feel better about it...

Despite it being fall, this little Lilly of some kind or another bloomed in our garden this last week. They are tiny little buds, and to be honest, we had forgotten about them kind of since they hadn't bloomed thus far. But we have delicate little blossoms in our garden for the fall, and I've noticed a great many other flowers, mostly of wild daisy varieties also starting their blooming as the trees begin to drop their foliage. I'm finding new things to love about this area every day. Speaking of, who saw that lunar eclipse Tuesday morning? It was gorgeous! I had to have something to make up for having the dogs out before the sun came up. If not there's a neat video of a lunar eclipse here, or a picture of Tuesday's here.

As for spinning or playing with fiber, I'm creeping through a couple projectors at a snails pace. The best one is that tiny little stuff I'm spinning. I have 5 of 6 bobbins done. Maybe I'll get a chance to finish it up before Halloween.

I hope you all have a wonderful night.