November is ending

 I didn't take many photos in November. 

Well, not many Landscape - Forest scenery. 

I think it is because this is my adjustment period from fall to winter. 

I enjoyed  watching the barberry plants in the woods change. These plants make great plantings in a suburban area but when they invade the woods, they make for prickly walking.

They are fun to photograph in the fall and winter. But I they don't provide wildlife with a meal. Well, I take that back. The birds eat these and spread it in their poo creating a thick undergrowth of plants that change the pH in the soil. These thickets are a wonderful Wood Tick Habitat. 

So, I have a love/hate relationship with them. I fight them on my land but it feels like a losing battle as my neighbor's 500+ acres of forest is infested with them.

Never the less. They are beauties to photograph.

There are morning frosts that are sometimes just so stunning and other times you just have to find the small things close to the ground to look at.

Some days a person get brilliant fleeting moments of color in a sunrise or sunset.  Sometimes those times are so incredibly beautiful in a very pastel way.

Yesterday we had dense fog and poor visibility. I still had to get to town but I took the scenic route and stopped at my favorite bridge on a back road.

By the time I was done in town, the fog was so dense it was hard to see. This is another reason I am grateful I am not doing the 60 mile round trip to work at odd hours anymore.

However, in a way, I thought the fog was beautiful. 

Today, I hope to get out and explore what froze in the creek last night as the temperatures went from 40 degrees to 21. And IT is snowing! :)

Time to think about some fun things. Like. ...

Experimenting with the Christmas Chair. The Jury is still out on this as I am going for less 'stuff' this year. But I did bring it out and set the jointed bear I made sooooo many years ago on it. As with most of my Christmas Stuff, it will constantly change.

Just wicked weather

Wednesday was neat we had a snowstorm of sorts and I spent the day just cleaning the house and rearranging things. I don't have a big house so it didn't take all day.
Charlie and I took a small walk around the pastures early and to the creek just to look around. I am always amazed by how green it is in the creek bottom.

Note that Charlie is wearing his 'beeper' collar. He is an avid rabbit hunter

and a demon on squirrels and deer tracks. Well,

he thinks he is. He does still once in a while

catch a luscious scent and take off on the

run.

However one beep distracts him and he races back to 

me.

Thursday was quiet also.

I prepped the lasagna and then started thinking about redecorating for Christmas. I gathered my sticks together and did some experiments with glue and Epsom salts.

Epsom salt and glue on 

a grape vine twist.

Dried Espom salt on a branch.

The real deal. Ice on branches in the woods!

It was messy, but it kept me occupied.

Yesterday morning after chores I decided to take Charlie up the road for a walk and to gather the mail. I dressed in orange and that awful safety green/yellow vest I have. I was staying on the road and I didn't expect the city boy hunters to be out as early as I was.

Charlie on rabbit track. 

He is zoned in.

My neighbor's field corn.

It has not been a good year for 

farmers.

The weather has been relentless. I had to move Little Richard from his pen to a stall inside as there was not a dry spot in his paddock to be had. He was standing with two hooves crowded into a large feed pan when I went to get him.

Make no doubt about it. He is loving the accommodations.

The photo above is the view from the porch. Rain/snow/sleet/freezing rain, and then rinse and repeat. The mules have done well as they have places that are in the woods out of the wind and where the ground is solid.

I have been taking their hay to the round bale feeders to keep them from stomping it into the ground.

Normally I would be out in this weather, but I've seen a few hunters across the way and have heard shooting even in this crap weather. 

I decided to spend the rest of the day deciding how to decorate.

This year there is no tree. This year there is no Christmas Chair. I've decided to see what I can come up with that is not the same as what has been done before.

Out came the old wood boxes, the little nesting box, toys...stuffed toys, beads, fairy lights...and ribbons. 

I needed to occupy myself on such a dreary ugly day. Charlie supervised when he wasn't napping.

Stay tuned for my crazy new ideas for decorating. As always, it is a constant work in progress.

Why we do we decorate for the Holidays?

November is nearly over. And here comes the Brown Icky Dreary Season.
The clouds are low and grey, last night it rained nearly one and a half inches. The rains pelted the house and blew in from the north and east.

From down in our little hollow we can hear the winds whipping this morning through the bare branches on the ridge. It sounds a bit ghostly. A mist or fog is moving in to make things look even more dreary.
This would be a good day to stay indoors and read a book. Or nap.

Yesterday started out wonderful. The frost came off the land in a beautiful fog. The sun peeked into our hollow and shone brightly. It was warm, it was nice.

This is a view of our place yesterday afternoon after I'd walked up to the neighbor's and checked on their chickens and goats. 
I also walked their dog Dexter.
I am startled by the difference in the remodel and I am not used to seeing it this way yet.

Our porch lights will light up the hollow in the night and can be seen from the ridge now that the leaves are down.
Today though it is yuck. Super Yuck. The sort of day that you want to pretend is over.

So I started to get out some Christmas Decorations. Rich walked into the house and saw some bags of decorations next to his computer desk.

"Decorating already?" He wondered.
"Well, thinking about it." 

I know why people decorate in our neck of the woods right after Thanksgiving. The gloomy days set in and a person has to have something to brighten their days.

No one else really comes to the house and enjoys our decorations. Our Christmas Eve and Day are generally spent with just ourselves or we go visit Rich's mom so she won't be alone.
I don't mind really.

I went out and got the Christmas Chair. The horrid ugly chair that I found buried in the garage a few years ago. It needs refinishing, gluing, and ... well. It should be just tossed out into the rubbish pile.

But. I like to take ugly things and pretty them up.

It will be interesting to see what I come up with this year. I try not to let any two years be the same.
Well, except for the ugly chair.

Let the fog/mist/rain/grey/dreary stuff roll in. Deer hunting is over, the blaze orange can be put away. The fall decorations can be stashed.

It's time to decorate and brighten the indoors up.

Stay tuned. The broken down chair will be transformed again this year.

And just in case you didn't know. I love to take Still Life shots of the decorations.