October 2016

October began with such promise.  I took this photo on October 2 and I went into my favourite month of the year with such hope!  Often, we have sun shine and crunchy leaves.

Let's just say, that during the month of October I took a picture outside when the sun was shining just because it was such a novelty! 

However,  we did have some wonderful days and Thanksgiving was one of them. 

 We picked up the kids from school since I seemed to have things well under control in the kitchen.

It is a good thing that I enjoy working in small spaces because when the littles took over my island, there was nothing but a small space left to get dinner on the table. 

Oh but how can I not take a close up of this little bit of sunshine with his smiling moon eyes?

This precious little I think, was perhaps subconsciously thinking of the tropics. 

They had my refrigerator covered with beautiful fall photos by the time they left!

OH .. look, we must have had a brief time of sunshine on October 10th too!  

I am always amazed at this Magnolia and it's admirable effort to provide one more show of bloom before it's leaves turn color. 

Apples!  We had apples this year!

I made lots with them and am happy that I have bags of dried apples tucked away to snack on this winter. 

Around October 12,  the weather reports warned of the worst storm coming our way in years.

I very much disliked pulling out my annuals but I did.

The perennials all got pruned and after hauling many loads to the way back with the wheelbarrow, I saw the tractor come around the corner of the barn and that was the end of me hauling things away.

October 14th I was set for the storm.  

I love a good storm.

This one sadly didn't live up to it's warnings.  

Meh!   

I will say though, that the Mexican seasonal workers across the road, decided that the storm was good enough to call it a day.

I went out to enjoy the puddles.

 I love when there is the contrast of the branches of green not yet touched by the fall colors.

 When we finished cleaning up our own leaves, we dropped in at the kids who were away for a few days.  

Another pick up from school day.  

I do feel so thankful for the influences in their lives that make this kind of artwork a natural outpouring. 

This girl!

She loves watching cooking shows.

I get such a kick out of her.

I called her over to dress the salad for me.

Ah... by October 22 the leaves were either blown away or had turned color. 

We decided to take a little drive to see the fall colors.  We took a route we don't normally take so I pulled up the map to see where we were.  

We truly do live in a mountainous region!  

Oh, look!  On October 25 we had a bit of sunshine again and so we hightailed it outside to have coffee. 

We said many times this month, that the colors of fall are so much more vibrant when the sun is shining. 

There is an upside to all the rain!

We have the greenest grass!

The blueberry plants in the field behind us are at their prettiest this time of year. 

I think that every hummingbird in our town has found their way to our place.  

A notice must have gone out that this farmer is still feeding the hummingbirds.

We have ten for sure, but likely more since it is hard to count them when they come and go so quickly. 

We had rain almost every day but on October 28th we had a super nice sunny day.

I had been watching the weather forecast all week long and when it looked like it would not rain, I sent out invites to come celebrate our first born's birthday.

He was born 20 years after me.

I asked him while he was sitting at the island if he wanted to hear his birth story. 

Meh!  Not so much!

We love him so much and are so thankful for how he blesses us!

The kids wanted to help so I gave them knives to peel the wieners.

We celebrated with a good old fashioned wiener roast.

Both sides of the family.

We love his other side of the family and are so blessed by their friendship.

Besides normal wiener roast food we enjoyed caramel apples...

and doughnuts fresh out of the fryer!

OH.. they are so soft and delicious.

Thank you Charlotte for putting the doughnuts in book one!

Ok... now look at this.

One more bloom!

This was yesterday.  It poured again but I have to admit there is beauty in the rain.

These were the leaves that fell yesterday.  

I loved how they fell so uniformly.

Kobe is my faithful dog who walks with me around the farm.

After a few laps, she usually sits down to watch me make laps.

Here we are at the end of October. 

We have recorded 288 mm of rain  and it rained 25 days this month!

It's been a very good month and I'm thankful for sunshine and rain and family and friends.

Have a wonderful November!

with love,