Flying away

Yesterday, Saturday, our family went out.
Off the mountain and into town.
We were soaking up the last bits of warmish weather.
When we left the house at 10am the temperature read 37-degrees F.
Not so warm.
The geese were rallying their flocks as they were circling the grain fields
setting their compasses for the long flight south.


We adjusted our flight north in search of adventures ~

It was one of the last of the farmers market's for the season.
A time that always makes me sad.
Saying goodbye to those who I see weekly and feed my family off their land.
I will miss the ritual of market.
And the fresh food.
The farmers are tired and ready for winters rest.
They deserve to put their feet up and take a break.
I guess I am ready to put my boots on and do some sliding,
as I may have mentioned, I love skiing!




Harvest celebrations were being held at many different farms.
We choose one and went to partake in the celebration.
Our local farmer had hauled in his pumpkin harvest and was selling them.
They were in four different sections - Small($5), Medium($6), Large($7) and Extra Large($8)
We choose two from the large section, carried them out to the car and went on to enjoy the rest of the festivities at the farm.
Which included wagon hay rides, live bluegrass music, bobbing for apples, pumpkin carving-for those so inclined, apple pressing and of course fresh apple cider, bee keepers collecting fresh honey(free samples!) and pony rides.

Even with the wrath of heavy frost I still find beauty in this sunflower.
It's head turned down. Sun at her back.
Sad to see Summer and her warmth go.

The precision with which the bees create is amazing.
Mind blowing.
Perfect.
Tasty!

Great day together as a family.

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Fall has firmly planted her feet on my valley.
You can feel her presence in the way the grasses along the ponds blow west, instead of their summer lean towards south,
in the way colors are starting to show on the mountain sides
and tree lined river banks.

We have had our first nights of heavy frost.
Frost that left us scrambling in the morning to find the ice scrapers,
ice scrapers that will now reside inside the vehicles
till late May or early June.
Frost that made all things green and growing in the garden a desperate
shade of blackish-green.
And all that was looking up for so long, now looks down to the earth
in such a longingly way.




Our first sightings of snow on the peaks
have brought great joy and excitement.
These are just the type of clouds that we will be needing
to fill our mountains with snow.

The light shows and productions that have been put on by the
clouds have been stunning.

But before winter slides in for the next five months,
a little fall action

Heading into town for an evening game

A beautiful setting for a soccer game

Our #10 in motion

As we headed home from the game, the sun had set
and the temperature had dropped
to a balmy 38 degrees.

I'm glad we only have two more week of this.
It is freaking cold standing on the side lines.

Now is the time

This week has been one of the nicest of the summer.
Even though it is now fall.
Our summer weather was odd.
And now our fall weather is odd - in a nice way.
The sun has decided to shine her smiling face and warm us up as we prepare for the cold.
Even though I would like to see the snow accumulating up in the mountains. I know it will come.
I'm trusting Mama Nature to do it up right this winter and give us a glorious spanking of snow on a daily basis. Please.

Out of respect for all of Miss Nature's efforts in boggling our minds with exceptional days, beautiful colors and nights that still beg for windows to be left open so she can wander in and out of rooms gathering a last glimpse before we shut our windows to Winter, I have been playing...

B and I took out the motorbikes and cruised 178 miles
Smiles and smiles all on dirt roads through the mountains

I took a day trip to a lake with a new friend.
No kids. Gosset champagne. Sunny skies. Warm gentle breeze.

She laughed when she saw me taking these pictures, but not as hard as when I pulled out the glassware. Silly girl thought we would be enjoying our beverage out of paper cups.
Ewwwwwww ~ Indeed NOT!
I may have been born and lived my whole life here in the sparse world of amenities and refinement. But I know how to have a good time and that we did.

The trees are just starting to show us their colors.
Disrobing just for us.
I tried not to stare, but that was hardly possible.
Such beauty all around us.
Each time we rounded another bend in the road and caught a new glimpse of the lake we remarked about the beauty of where we live.
Stunning really. Living here in this general place my whole life I forget to take it all in on a daily basis and revel in the place that is my home.

We sat for a long time talking and sitting in comfortable silence listening to the 'waves' lapping at the shore. I made mental notes to bring the family here next summer. Many times. It is so worth the drive.
We ate lunch at a great little dive restaurant with a quirky menu and an even more interesting wine list.
Made a quick stop into a brewery. Had the worst flavored beer I have ever tried. I just don't understand the whole fruit in beer crap. I'll take hops. Lots of them, please.

On the drive home got stuck for just under and hour as the brilliant ranchers moved several hundred head of cows across the highway (2 lanes) and then proceeded to have to chase several juveniles who had decided that they would skip out of the herd.
Perhaps on a Wednesday at 4:30pm is NOT the time to do this. There isn't a whole hell of a lot of rush hour traffic, but I'm thinking 1o:30 in the morning when school buses are not trying to take kids home and folks are not trying to get home from town might be a better option. Just saying. I'm no rancher, but...
This nutty mayhem resulted in my missing of my boys soccer game and my friend being very late to pick up her boy from his sitters.
Thankfully we were laughing the whole time. Not much else we could do. Getting all pissy wouldn't have helped the cows cooperate any better. So we had fun.