Life from where we are

Why is there a dead chicken hanging on my clothesline??????

Sunday we walked in Saratoga Park so here are a couple photos of the beautiful flower gardens at the entrance. This entrance is called the avenue of the pines....I'm sure you can guess why!

We took a walk on the bike path near the river......still not a lot of color in the trees!

This week was in the 80's........................it is supposed to be fall! What happened to our seasons? I put out some mums & pumpkins but look at my flowers....they still think it's the middle of summer!

Between Weds & today I have raked & picked up four of these H*me D*pot buckets of acorns.  We didn't have hardly any the last two years & I guess this year the oaks are making up for it! It is dangerous to sit on our deck without protective headgear! Last night I got a little over zealous while   charring browning the meat & managed to set the grill on fire.  I took the meat off & turned off the burners hoping the fire would burn itself out.  When I came back outside the roast was covered in acorns.........instant "roughage"! Every time the wind blows it sounds like a hail storm! Why do I get this feeling those squirrels are sitting in the tree laughing at me because I am doing all their work for them?

This week we met Bob & Noreen up at the historical park but as you can see it wasn't the best conditions for taking pictures .....very overcast sky & there is not a lot of trees turning yet. I have a fascination with dead trees! Still lots of wild flowers blooming. They were doing a re-enactment of one of the big battles that took place here....I would tell you which one but sorry......I forget! I am trying to sharpen my skills at close-ups & think this one is pretty good! We plan to go back again in about two weeks so by then the leaves will be changing & hopefully the sun will be out for better pictures.

Popster was playing in a golf outing that was out of town & would be gone all day so I asked him to see if he could get a ride & leave his SUV home for me to use.  Great idea at the time but one that proved to be very challenging! I was going to Mark & Dani's at 4:00 so we could go out to eat.  Around 3:00 I decided to take Molly over to Jenkins to run off some energy.  I had bought her a new toy....a boomerang.....& she, of course, was being her usual " I'm not sharing my new toy " self & wouldn't give it back for me to throw again.  I would have to go over to where she was & bribe her with treats to get it back.  We did two laps around the field & when I got back to the gate I no longer had any car keys in my hand!!!!! " Why didn't I put them in my pocket " you might ask! Don't I always put the key ring over my pinkie.   "Did I" you might ask! Don't "Was I carrying my cell phone" ...

Sunday morning we went up to Saratoga where they have a dog park & beautiful nature trails that are home of the Karner Blue butterfly.  Everything is left in a "forever wild" setting for the butterflies. Molly was checking out this guy who was much bigger than her. Her speed was no match for him...........size isn't everything! These are some of the cool "artsy" horses that are all around town. Even the store windows have the race track theme. I don't know what happened to this poor horse....no decoration at all! It really is a beautiful place that we will visit more now that racing season is over.