Fall wildflowers

The yellows and whites of fall aren't as splashy as the pinks and purples of spring, but they're still really beautiful!  

Yellow wingstem (Verbesina alterniflora) native

Butter and eggs (Linaria vulgaris) - introduced

Common mullein (Verbascum thapsus)- introduced

Oxeye daisy (Leucanthemum vulgare)- introduced

White aster (Symphyotrichum ericoides)- native

Fall in Virginia

Fall is the best.  

 Oak hickory forests here in VA turn a beautiful yellow and brown and the light illuminates the leaves when the sun comes out.

We often go to the battlefield to walk the dog.  Jim's on the phone with his parents.  This is totally normal Shasta behavior while we're on the phone.

Pie!

Carving pumpkins!

Is crazy fun :-)

Here's mine!


And Jim's. We both also carved a miniature pumpkin, and those turned out great!



And D's.

My miniature pumpkin


All the pumpkins lined up on the deck. They look great!



Happy Halloween!

More scenes from last weekend

Some more scenes from last weekend...

We went to a 5 acre corn maze. Unfortunately due to the drought the corn was very, very small. But it was still fun!


One of the featured attractions was a pumpkin slingshot!
And Jim got to eat soft-serve ice cream for the second time. With sprinkles.


Plus, they had a pumpkin patch. This made us all really happy....

Storm aftermath...

So after everything came down we had the fun of cleaning up the yard this weekend. First and foremost among the tasks was cleaning up the oak tree that split in half in the backyard. Thankfully, we had some awesome helpers that made it go much easier! And I really got to break in my chainsaw!

More snow pics

We've had 8 inches of snow so far, and since the leaves are still on the trees, the trees are falling down like crazy - one went through the storm window of our bedroom last night at 3 am and another fell and smashed our picnic table into smithereens and knocked our gutter off the house morning. The road is blocked, and we haven't had power since about 4 am, and likely won't until at least tonight and possibly tomorrow (bummer, I wanted to watch the Yankee game!)

All night, we could hear trees falling in the woods (answering that age-old question) and see the transformers explode and light the night sky. Most of the town doesn't have power.

Nuts, right? And we're supposed to continue with this weather until tomorrow a.m....

Record snowfall in PA

We have 5 inches of snow in the backyard. Trees are leaning over our house and we hear a new one fall in the woods about every 20 minutes (not counting enormous branches). It's still snowing and it's getting colder. We're lucky that our house doesn't depend on electricity for heat, because the power lines have branches on them and will likely not stay upright till the morning - our neighbor's lines are sparking. Crazy! It's the earliest snowfall in State College since they started keeping records, and since our leaves had not yet reached peak, the trees are falling down. It's supposed to snow until Saturday morning.

Some pics, for proof:

First, the ridge, with snow...
I wonder how long we'll have electricity...

That's a branch that fell, upright, with the base about 2 inches deep in the ground

The trees looming ominously over our house (from our backyard)

Bonfire pit doesn't exactly resemble fall anymore...

More downed trees in the backyard

Fall colors with snow is oddly pretty

Downed tree in our driveway

Fall in State College

Our friends T, M and their gorgeous son B came up this weekend! Here are some highlights:

B loves kitties.

Makin' cornbread for chili.

A small house of our very own.
I'm perfectly normal, why?


Oh, happy billy goats.