A Photographic 10-Pack

I walk past an ivy covered brick wall on one of my route home from the library.  I noticed it had started to change color.  The textures and colors were quite pleasing to my eye.  I like how they cascade in little ribbons of leaf.

The birds (and squirrels) made short work of my sunflower seeds.  That was my intention, but I was surprised by how fast they were gobbled up.  The squirrel could eat almost a whole head's worth of seeds in one sitting though.  Its interesting to watch how the different birds take advantage of it.  Like the squirrel, the house finches and house sparrows just sit and go to town on the seeds.  The red breasted nuthatches and black capped chickadees swoop in quickly, snag a seed, and then leave just as quickly.  They make countless short trips to the buffet instead.  Its neat. 

Matt made bagels.  He's been on a bread-making kick, of which I am a wholeheartedly supportive taste test subject.  

We moved the Scrabble board out to the patio to enjoy a bit of the sunny autumn weather.  Matt built us a fire since I tend towards being cold all the time.  I enjoy games.  I enjoy fires.  It was a perfect pairing.

I finally hung the birthday bunting across the gate that separates the patio surround and the yard.  I used to have a set of prayer flags there, but they were ripped up by a storm sometime last year.  The bunting I made is just the right length for the gate.  I wish I could claim that was on purpose....but it was just a lucky coincidence.

Its very possible that we grew "too many" carrots this year.  We've still got a 12 foot by 4 foot bed of them we've not even touched yet.  But, they store well enough so...we shall see.  I picked about 15 pounds of them over the weekend from our other 12 foot by 2 foot patch of them.  They are so sweet and delicious.  We're quite pleased with how long and straight they are too since we planted them in soil that had been very recently unearthed from the sod.

Matt and I both adore snap dragons.  I think maybe we should plant some around our place.  The bees seem to love them, too.

We're enjoying the fall colors.  Matt has a particular fondness for trees and bushes that turn red.

On Sunday we took a nice long.  It was at least 65 degrees F outside and sunny as could be.  The weather report indicated that our sunny autumn day would be followed by a snow storm and cold snap that very evening so we wanted to get out and enjoy every minute of warm, sun we could.  I also swung in the hammock while Matt collected leaves.

A cooper's hawk down the street from my house.  It was drinking out of a puddle when I spooked it by walking down the street.  I've never seen one from quite so close.  I did watch a sharp-shinned hawk (the smaller, nearly identical cousin of this hawk) kill and eat a sparrow in my garden once, but never a close encounter with a cooper's hawk.  Isn't that eye something!?