Rain

Leaves fell with the rain from last night and this morning.  There are trees that are looking bare already and others that are still mostly green.  The sidewalk was speckled with red, orange, green, yellow, and brown.  In one area pine cones crunched under my shoes.  

After work I had a dentist appointment. Now my tongue hurts from rubbing it over my clean teeth. Turns out my teeth are doing pretty well.  Hopefully there won't be a pandemic for my next cleaning.  Clean teeth is a happy for today, other happy things include:

• It rained today.  The earth needs it.  The air did too.  The sky was so much clearer today after the rain moved away.
• I played with the Canon camera again.  No butterflies though.
• K met someone new to the SCA today.  They have an eight year old, same as Gideon.  They all had a video call tonight.  Souds like there are things in common for the two children.
• The fresh air today felt so good.

These mushrooms weren't in the path yesterday.  
Rain last night and poof!

☮

Stay safe.

Bad word day...

Michaelmas

 The saying goes:

“Eat a goose on Michaelmas Day,

Want not for money all the year”.

We have a friend who cooks up a goose every year for the Feast of Michael.  This year, instead of holding a party to share in this, our friend prepared the goose and, with K, delivered it to what friends they could.  So for dinner tonight we all got to have some goose.  Some of my other happy things have to do with bugs...

• It was a good day at work.
• There was a sweet fragrance as I walked under some maple trees.  At first I thought it was from the ice cream shop almost a quarter mile away.  Once I was no longer under the trees the fragrance was gone.  So I can't be sure it was the trees, it did seem it.
• Just in time I managed to not squish a stick insect.
• I wasn't going to walk on the property this afternoon.  I had things I wanted to get done and could get my steps in faster on the sidewalk.  I'm so glad I changed my mind.  There are some still shots below and here is a link to the monarch polinating the purple asters.  The insect wouldn't hold still and pose at first, which is why there is video.  
• There were bees to take pictures of too.
• Leaves are falling and everything is changing daily.
• The warm breeze held fresh moisture in it today.

It could have rained this afternoon so the Canon camera didn't go on the walk with me.  This was the right choice and I am okay with that.

Stick Bug.

There is an orange blur that is the butterfly near the right top corner.

Monarch.

Monarch.

Bee.

Foliage.

I feel like there is a picture from a month or so ago that also
had a clear round area sort of over the house...

Maple trees.  They weren't fragant in this direction,
they were on the way back up the street.

Plague shirt modeled by K.

☮

Keep your distance.

Gone Fishing

 The hot water was returned to us a little after noon today.  I didn't sleep much last night and decided to call out of work today.  After a nap I felt much better but my back was also in pain.  I had a chiropractor appointment and it is doing much better.  Walking seems to help the lower back, but today it hurt around my scapula.  Things are better now.

K & Z had a town meeting to attend tonight so I was tasked with taking Gideon to Scouts.  Tonight they went fishing and played noodle tag.  I only noticed one of the other kids catch anything.  I'm pretty sure Gideon had something once that got away.  It was fun trying to teach him how to cast.  It is weird that I can remember something that I haven't done in forty years better than I can remember what I did yesterday.  Okay, that is a little bit of an exaggeration.  

Other happy things:

• Having hot water is kind of huge for me right now.  I am a shower every day sort of person and I missed that, a lot.
• Watching the bobber go under when there was probably a fish trying to get a bite.
• The moon.
• Sleep.
• Early bedtime.

Casting.

Casting.

Moon.

☮

Wear a mask.

Sunday

 An alarm went off to remind me of the Kingdom Curia (business meeting) that was today at 10 AM.  It turned out to be a very long meeting that started late because of technical dificulties.  This was the first time they did the meeting online.  It was good to attend and thus stay involved with the things that have been going on.  A little while after it started K and I decided that we could sort through boxes while listening to the Zoom meeting.  I'm glad we attended.

Happy things for today:

• Sorting through things and being able to throw some away and decide to let some of it just go.  At some point there will be a yard sale or something.
• All the colors.
• Getting a walk in to reach my step goal.
• Listening to Z and Gideon laugh.

More blooms!

The sun (far right) was an orange pink color that the phone couldn't capture.

☮

Stay safe.

Out of the Darkness

 Today was the AFSP Out of the Darkness walk to raise funds and awarness.  Because of the pandemic walkers were encouraged to participate in small groups with people they are comfortable with and in their own neighborhoods or local parks.  Our team had five of us that walked today.  There were times when the conversations were light and times when they were deep.  It was a good day, with good friends, but it would be better if people could receive the mental health help that they need so that there was no reason to have this kind of walk.

On to the happy things for today:

• Getting to spend time with friends.
• Foliage (this might be on my list for a while).
• Finding things to throw away from storage.
• Finding fabric from the 1970's.  Maybe I will get some photos tomorrow.
• Z made a chicken taco dinner with some frozen peaches from our tree.  It was very good.
• K and I also found some articles of clothing that we couldn't quite identify at first.  We are now certain that they are maternity wear from the 1950's or 1960's.  An interesting find.

Foggy morning.

Off we go!

Almost done.

☮

Stay safe.

Star Trek NG

 We have been watching Star Trek the Next Generation.  After finishing part one of a season finale episode I am asked what it was like to watch this back then, in 1990 ish.  I suggested that having to wait a full season to see the second half is why the older generation has more patience that the younger.  This was a joke on my part, but K agreed.  We watched the second half tonight, you know, right after the first part.  Why wait three months if you don't have to?

Other things that are my happy things for today:

• Another lovely weather day.
• Autumn colors.
• The memory of hot showers.  My opinion is that we ran out of oil today.  It is possible that something else happened, either way, there is no hot water.  It is a warm and comforting memory.  One of the things about moving from the city to the country is that there are certain routines that aren't needed in the city, like check the level of fuels where before it just came to the house and a bill in the mail.
• I must also add that cold showers are... invigorating and probably why I had a slightly increased amount of energy today.

All photos from the camera, not phone.  The second bird is an edit to crop the bird from the first photo.

☮

Stay safe.

Camera Play

 There is a student that I've had a hard time connecting to.  There are lots of them, but this one student and I worked for quite a while together today.  I felt it went well.  Hopefully it will go well next week too.  This was a happy thing and so are these:

• There was a plant a few days ago that I posted pictures of the other day.  Today when I walked by this plant one of the the purple buds had blossomed.  I believe it is a purple aster.  The app I use has given me many options, this seems the most likely.
• I used the real camera again today and am pleased with some of the results.
• After going over the pictures I played with cropping some and love the optical zoom.
• My walk on the property today brought me along ways that I hadn't gone since spring.  

Sunset - photo from cell phone.

Remaining photos are from the Canon camera.

Close up of the Japanese knotweed.

Crop of the next pic.

Crop from the next picture.

Crop of the next picture.

☮

Stay safe.

PS-I may have spoke too soon about the mosquitos... no mosquitos today but a few gnats bit me.