Random pix

As you can imagine, it's been a busy week full of many tasks. I've been writing so much that I've hardly had a chance to think of anything useful to post on the blog. So I'll fall back upon what I often do when I can't think of anything better: random pictures. So without further ado...

Strawberry pies, ready to take to our neighborhood potluck.

On November 1, I took these photos of the bald-faced hornets nesting on our front porch. Their activities have been curtailed with the advent of cooler weather. Here they're clustering at the tip of their hive, for unknown reasons. Sending off the new young queens, perhaps?

We've noticed NO activity in the nest in the last week or so. Still, I'm not going to chance removing it until we've had a few days of bitterly cold weather, just to make sure everyone's dead.

Talking a walk one afternoon, I liked the way the sun glinted on some distant young pines.

Tamaracks, also called larch, are coniferous trees that turn yellow and lose their needles every fall. It's about the only autumn color we get around here.

Red tailed hawk. Hard to focus, it was moving fast.



Some examples of Younger Daughter's schoolwork: Bible, history...

...and math.

Foggy deer.

Same photo, with the color automatically adjusted.

Visiting a friend, I noticed some additional visitors on her stoop.

Altogether: "Awwwww...."

Lydia, crammed in her favorite chair. The girls covered her with my shawl.

Altogether: "Awwwww...."

More Lydia pix.

We had our first snowfall a couple weeks ago.

It didn't last long, but it was very pretty.

It's always funny to watch the younger chickens seeing snow for the first time. "What IS this stuff?"

Hawk on a distant treetop.

"Brrrr! This water is c-c-c-cold!!"

One last leaf, desperately clinging.

Watch out, guys, Thanksgiving is coming.

Young birds clustered in Matilda's stall.

I thought the composition of this photo turned out splendidly.

Chilly toes?

The dark lines are vines on our front porch. I was shooting through them, focusing on the quail but trying not to scare them off.

Younger Daughter, looking rather ghostly in the cloak made by her grandmother, goes for a walk in the snow.

Older Daughter throws snowballs for the dogs.

Old Major is doing fine after his near brush with death last February. A little stiff and sore, but then he's also getting up there in years.

We got another, harder snowfall last week (it's all melted off now). Older Daughter and I went for a walk. Got some beautiful photos.

I thought this looked like a Christmas card.

Chickens in the compost pile.

Smoky, our setting hen from last summer, has become so tame she's presumptuous.

She knows she's become a special pet.

Sunset after a rainy day.

Pretty larches

Here in north Idaho, we get very little by way of fall color since our woods are primarily coniferous.  But we do have tamaracks (also called larches).

Tamaracks are unique among conifers in that they turn yellow and drop their needles in the fall, just like deciduous trees do.  They can add quite a dramatic blaze of color in an otherwise solid-green forest in October and November.

I took this in our woods.  (Click on the first photo to enlarge - I took this shot half-way blind - didn't have my glasses on - but it turned out pretty cool.)

Took these on the way home from church. It was a misty foggy day but as I said, they make splashes of yellow among the dark green. Pretty larches!