HAPPY HALLOWE'EN EVERYBODY!!

I was always told by my folks that you should learn something new every day...you know, keep the old gray cells (or is it grey cells? That will be my new thing to learn tomorrow) sharp.

I keep meaning to try and post my newfound bit of knowledge here, to share it with you and then we can ALL learn something new together. And what fun that would be. Are you dazzled with my brilliance?

But alas, I keep forgetting and all this knowledge is piling up inside and giving me a bit of a headache, so I will tell you what I leanred today.

I learned that when you are mixing up a big bowl of banana cream pudding and you want to reach over to the table to grab your book to read for a moment because you have to whip the pudding for 4 minutes, which is really quite an eternity when you having nothing to look at but the clock (you know, a watched pot and all that) you should really put the mixer down for a moment instead of stretching, because sometimes the bowl will shimmy over the the edge of the counter and straight onto the floor. Banana pudding makes a big and sticky mess. Perhaps I could scoop it into baggies and hand it out to the Trick-or-Treaters?

I think this picture might show up twice, I sort of had a hard time downloading it. Anyhow, it seems like an odd photo, but I wanted to show how the snow glitters in the sunlight. If you click on the picture (which enlarges it a bit, a fact I only learned recently from Californiamama) you can see some of the flakes sparkling in the sun. It's much more beautiful in "real life", the flakes glitter in all different colours, a rainbow effect and you can turn your head and see blue, pinks, yellows...it's quite miraculous really. 

You can see little twigs and bits of debris on the ice. There is still a few open spots for the ducks to paddle around in, but I think they should be heading to the warm south (Lynn..maybe to your area!) pretty darn soon! 

No fishermen out on the pier today. Most of the water has a thin sheet of ice on it...but soon there will be enough for ice-fishing. 

My frozen fountain. We keep a little anti-freeze in it though, so that it runs all winter long. 

HAPPY HALLOWE'EN EVERYBODY!!! 

Snow! I just looked out the window to see blizzard conditions happening! The sky is that gun metal gray and the wind is whistling and the flakes are swirling all over the place....I LOVE it! I can't wait to get home and go for a walk, nothing gets the blood pumping like a walk in the cold. Poor Gypsy just hates it though, but luckily she has a new winter coat.

Speaking of Gypsy, she gave me such a fright last night, but let me backtrack a bit. She tends to eat a lot of grass, as dogs do, and now and then she "horks" ('cause that's the sound she makes) it up. Steven has only ever seen her do it once, so yesterday when I came home from work he was rather distraught that she had "horked" on the rug and he thought she was ill. The fact that she was running, leaping, smiling and generally carrying on as usual seemed to mean nothing to him and he refused to give her any of her "cookies" all day long.

Anyhow, I set his mind at ease, and after dinner we headed off to the hockey game, leaving her moping at the top of the stairs, telling her that dogs are just not welcome at the arena.

Fast forward to 3 hours later as we arrive home. Now, 99% of the time when we come home she is waiting at the front door, the other 1% of the time she jumps off the couch and races down the stairs to greet us. Last night we came in the house to silence. I called her name....nothing. I peeked in the living room in case she was really curled up and sleeping soundly...nothing. I ran down the hallway and checked bedroom #1, #2 and #3. Nothing, nothing, nothing. I started to fully panic, thinking awful thoughts that her "horking" was a sign of something else and I'm calling her name and yelling at Steven: "Where IS she?? Something is wrong!!" and running all over the house, looking outside in case she somehow got out and was on the sundeck. Adreneline was flowing full bore let me tell you.

Steven said: "The basement door is closed." which wasn't as odd a statement as it sounds since we usually leave it open. I pushed him aside and ran down there and opened the door, and there she is, my little beastie, almost hysterical with joy! She carried on as if she had been locked in a dungeon with no food or drink for days....she ran upstairs and drank a huge bowl of water, and proceeded to jump all over us and whined about the situation.

How she shut that door is beyond me, it does not close by itself, there is no furnace vent or anything to "blow" it shut, it opens against a wall so that it's not like she would be behind it and bump it closed. I don't know what she did, and I was just so happy to see her ok that I didn't think much of it. Until later that night, while we were in bed, and I wondered if someone had broken in the house and was hiding somehwere....hmmmm, either a bad guy who managed to lock her down there and was hiding upstairs to do dastardly things to us, or, as has happened once before, someone we know snuck in and Gypsy was happy to see them and thus went downstairs with them. And they were sleeping or something.

But it was 3 AM and I didn't relish finding a burgler, or coping with troubled acquaintances, Steven was sleeping the sleep of the non-caring, so I decided to join him in the land of Nod. I woke up alive this morning, so I guess I'll chalk it all up to "one of those things."

Maybe it was Revenge of the Devil Dog. Perhaps I shouldn't dress her up in anymore?

"Devil in Disguise...." 

Lesson for today: Did youknow that when the frost comes, bullrushes freeze and then "explode"? It was news to me, until I saw a marsh chock full of exploded bullrushes!! 

"If the wheat is as high as an elephants eye..." That's when you are supposed to harvest it, or so they say. This wheat was taller than me, the dog and I had fun running through it and playing "hide n' seek." 

Peek-a-boo!!  

My new next door neighbour's salute to October! Pretty nifty eh? 

We have a large tree in our front yard, and to Gypsy's horror, a squirrel has taken to running up and down the limbs, taunting her!! 

Mmmmmmmmmmmm......apples!!!! 

It's Fall! The time for scarecrows and almost for ghosts and goblins. 

This picture was meant to go with the post below this one. There actually are beavers up where I walk and they indeed do gnaw down the trees. When they first gnawed this one down it was about 18 feet long, and each day it was shorter and shorter, and today there was only about a 2 foot section left. Crazy little creatures. 

Happy Belated Thanksgiving to my Canadian friends! We are having our dinner today as I had to work all weekend. This working business is playing havoc with my social life I tell you! It's s shame how one has to work if one wants money.

It will just be Steven & I for dinner tonight so I am not doing a turkey, but a nice little chicken instead. A Foster Farms chicken as a matter of fact, ever see those commercials with the 2 scrawny chickens that wish they were Foster Farms? I hope I don't have one of those ones....

The guys got their elk and a couple of deer, so, as Steven says: "The pressure is off now." Me: "What the hell? You think we are Little House on the Prairie? We'll still be able to eat even if you don't get an animal." But I guess it's a guy thing. Myself, I'd rather have the Foster Farms chickens.

Weather has turned crisp and cool, gets the blood pumping when you're outside walking. I found a perfect Christmas tree in the bush, in a small clearing, so I am planning on decorating it with sparkly pinecones and maybe suet and birdseed. (in the bush that is, not in my house!) I think it will look a little magical when the snow falls. That's my Martha Stewart plan anyhow, but my plans always fall awry and I'll probably go there laden with items for the wildlife only to find the tree chewed up by beavers, or surrounded with deer poop. Ah well...the intentions are good.

"But Doctor, what do you MEAN I'm not a real person???"

Bums up! Guess there must be tasty items under the water. I love to watch the ducks flip upsidedown, their little orange feet flapping like crazy. Then when they get themselves right-side-up they look quite amazed at what they have accomplished. 

We see this old fellow fishing up here everyday. He doesn't usually catch anything, but he enjoys the peace and quiet . Steven went to talk to him today, but the old fellow wouldn't share any fishing secrets! 

When I walk in the bush I often come across these little hidden spots that look like wood nymphs and elves should live there. Today was sort of gloomy and cloudy, yet the sun shone into this little marsh filled with bullrushes, what better spot for dancing with fairies?