Fall in the Air.

I love fall.  I love the air and the sounds and the edge of a chill.  Somehow as it gets colder I feel all that much warmer inside.  I think I actually spend a considerable amount of the time from early October through whenever it seems the last snow has fallen in a state of giddiness.  

We have already had several very cold days and a dusting of snow which was lovely.  The high winds blew so many small branches out of the firs in the forest, it really looked like someone had carpeted our driveway with evergreen.  We were fortunate that the only notable tree that came down on our property was an old, mostly dead fir that took out just one smaller noble which is now likely to end up as our Christmas tree.

One of the last flowers to bloom for the year, pink in the shade of the forest.

Apples are ripe, including these delicious Fujis off one of Craig's more recently planted trees.

This tiny mushroom made me smile.  It was maybe the same diameter as a dime.

Grapes ripening.

Craig harvesting green ones.

These were so sweet this year.

I got impatient making raisins and discovered that we like halfway dry perhaps even more.  They also left the best grape jelly on the parchment.  I think next year I'm going to try to do this on purpose and blend up the raisins in with the jelly.

Our last little harvest from our little garden.

More ripe apples.

The top of our Golden Delicious tree was too high to harvest so the pileated woodpeckers helped eat them up.  If I had been about 30 seconds faster, there would have been two woodpeckers in this photo.

Putting away some apple sauce for the winter.

A praying mantis.  We also found an egg sack down in the lower brush underneath it.

Our first persimmon crop off the tree Craig planted 2 years ago!  So delicious!

The elk herd, just a bit down the hill.

Taking a break from munching to have a look at us.

One of the larger bull elk overseeing the herd from back near the forest line.

Craig with a bunch of apples and Asian pears, checking on the hens.

The sunsets start getting extra beautiful here as the sun moves more into the southern sky.

It feels so good to come inside to a cozy fire.  Fall is here and winter is coming soon.