Snowy Fence

You can find beauty in the most unlikely places if you just look.  This fence is located at one of our dumpster sites, but the snow has dressed it up nicely, and adding a few filters didn't hurt either.

The dumpster divers aren't interested in the beauty, though.  All they're interested in is scavenging a bit of food.

Even without the added filters the fence and the ravens still made for a good photo.

I'm linking up with Good Fences

at the Run "A" Round Ranch Report.

Foraging

The little red squirrel that hangs out in our yard is having to work a little extra hard to get to the sunflower seeds dropped by the Chickadees under the bird feeder.  Monday we were entertained for quite a while watching him burrowing under the four inches or so of snow on our deck and coming up to munch on a seed.

I am linking with Eileen's Saturday's Critters #100.  Congrats on the milestone, Eileen!

The last month has been interesting at our house.  The day after my last post saw us on the road to Anchorage, hightailing it out of town as a snowstorm was beginning, which eventually dumped a foot or so of wet snow and causing 1000s of homes to lose power.  Our house was out for less than a day, but my daughters were both out for 4 or 5 days.  Meanwhile we enjoyed a little bit of extended fall weather to the south in Anchorage.   We were in Anchorage for five days to see a specialist for arthritis problems in my left wrist.  It ended up with surgery that put me in a cast for six weeks.  We got home after most of the snow had melted.  Not to be outdone and to keep things interesting, ten days later Marty fell while skating and broke his ankle, leaving him with a cast on his foot.  By practicing the fine art of cooperation we are managing to do most things, and fortunately we have a lot of people we can call on to help us do the things we can't.  I'm having a hard time with this one-handed typing though--it's taken me several days to get this post done!  I fly down to Anchorage Tuesday to get the cast off, so hopefully I'll be back to normal before too long.

Winter

Friday morning winter arrived.  We had about 7 inches of snow at our house, and it made for some lovely scenes.

By late afternoon it had quit snowing, the sun came out, and it was windy.  All the snow came off the trees.....

....along with most of those laggard leaves.

Today the snow is almost completely gone, but another snowstorm is due tomorrow.  I don't think we can hide from winter any longer!

Waning Days of Fall, Continued

Tuesday, at Creamer's Field, there was still a lot of fall color in evidence, although much less than last week.  

Today, in my backyard, some of the trees are ready for snow and some are still holding out.

A colorful carpet covers the ground, but snow is expected in the early morning hours.  It should melt quickly, giving us another peek at the colorful fall leaves, but sometime in the next few weeks the snow will cover the leaves for the duration of winter.  

I'm linking with Good Fences

at the Run "A" Round Ranch Report.

Waning Days of Fall

More and more leaves are falling and it's getting cooler every day.  Nowhere is it more evident than at Creamer's Field.

You can definitely see a difference from my header photo taken September 11th.  It won't be long until we're seeing winter scenes.  

I'm linking with Tom at The Barn Collective 20.

Below is a photo taken at Creamer's Field on April 16, 2012,

at the other end of the migration cycle.   

It's my Index No. 9998 for 

Gaelyn's Foto Friday Fun 129

and my critter entry for

Eileen's Saturday's Critters 92.

Empty Fields

We've had a very wet week with a lot of rain.  On Friday there were still a few Canada Geese visible at Creamer's Field.

By Monday not a one was visible. 

Was it too wet even for the geese?

Well, perhaps it had more to do with the snow we got Sunday morning.  It came down it wet globs for quite a while, as shown in my yard--taken out the window, I might add. 

It left behind a bit of white ground cover, but by mid afternoon was all gone.  I'm not sure for how long, as mixed rain and snow is predicted and nighttime temps below freezing by this weekend and going downhill from there.  Ah, well, guess it is that time of year.....

I'm linking with Tom at

The Barn Collective 13
and
Good Fences 78 at
The Run "A" Round Ranch

A Few Laggards

Although most of the Sandhill Cranes have already left for warmer climes, the last few days a family has stopped in our neighborhood and fed in our neighbor's field across the road.

Of course, the leaves have mostly turned color now, providing some lovely views in my yard.

Sadly, a little after I took these photos yesterday we had a bit of a breeze, and now there are quite a few leaves on the ground too.  Fall colors don't usually last very long here!

I'm linking with Good Fences

at the Run "A" Round Ranch Report.

Fall Colors

After a couple of weeks of very rainy weather and several days with highs in the 40s, we finally had sunshine again on Tuesday, although we had a light frost Tuesday night.  A few Sandhill Cranes were still at Creamer's Field on Monday, but all I saw were Canada Geese on Tuesday.

We've had some beautiful sunny days in the low 60s this week, but there's also been a dramatic change in the scenery.  On Saturday fall colors were evident on the hills behind the barn and around the field.  There were still some Canada Geese hanging out, but not very many.

Most years the Cranes hang out at Creamer's Field a bit longer, but I guess the rain and chilly temps we had prompted them to fly further south.  The photo below was taken September 12, 2011.  Every year is just a bit different, and while the Fall colors are pretty much on schedule, it's sad that the migrating birds passed through just a bit quicker this year.

The photo below was taken August 29, 2011, and is my Index # 0057 for Gaelyn's Foto Friday Fun #127.


I guess that touch of Fall in the air has turned into the real deal.  Ah, well, time to get all those cleanup chores done in the yard while the weather is nice and before that fluffy white stuff starts tumbling down.

I'm linking with Tom at The Barn Collective

and Eileen at Saturday's Critters.

Cranes at Creamer's

The rain finally stopped and the sun has been peeking out now and again, although high temps were still in the 40s with a frost warning tonight.  We went by Creamer's Field for a while this morning and there are still Cranes hanging around, although not the numbers that would normally still be here.  I believe a good many have already headed south for warmer climes.

Although there were a lot of clouds, there was enough sunshine for some decent photos of the old dairy barns.  Sunshine and 60 degrees is forecast for later in the week and I'm hoping we'll have a bit more of that before winter settles in!

I'm linking with Tom at The Barn Collective

and Eileen's Saturday's Critters.