§ The Big Eat....

For Thanksgiving, I don't do too much interior decorating. It's mostly cooking and baking involved...pies, dressing, salads, condiment dishes, turkey, cranberry sauce, sweet potaoes with marshmallow, yams, mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls, etc. This year, with the virus, there will be just the two of us, but that is not gonna stop me from celebrating the holiday. It'll just be toned down a bit. No big bird roasting [a small one]. No three pies for company [just one pumpkin pie]. No cooking fresh cranberries and making a waldorf salad, plus a jellied sauce [it'll be ocean spray, canned]. I will, however, make dressing from scratch. Neither of us likes sage nor do we care for cornbread dressing, so I will dry out the bread and go for it. And the one day we splurge and have all kinds of potato dishes, I will make greasy, unhealthy, gravy! One day a year...gotta have gravy on my mashed potatoes. Playing it safe because of this pandemic I went to the store and bought everything I need for it all. Just in case there is a shortage of things later on this month, I will have it stock-piled.

After packing away October's decorations, I brought out the few Autumn/Thanksgiving trinkets and polished wood, dusted furniture and mantle...I even ran the duster over all the walls in the house to rid of the tiny webs [shhhhh, don't repeat that in front of Bud, he has the illusion I keep a clean house], windexed all the glass table tops of the end tables, etc. It's nothing compared to what I put out for Halloween and Christmas, but we now know what season it is....

I have a collection of mini scarecrows, but decided to not bring them out. Only the one I crocheted years ago seen at the end of the following series of images...

§ 12 months of Nature in 2019...

Once again, from my monthly recordings...a review of the past year. And again, the frame used was before I revamped my blog look. I think this is the last of my images that have the old framing.

Early sun on the bay


Toadstools after a week of rain


Raw Copper from Tucson AZ mine  [in our  yard....we bought it while on a tour of a copper mine when living in Tucson, and moved it here with us!!]  After all, copper costs a pretty penny!!!!


Cypress Tree seed pods


White Tailed Dear [and white in the background bushes...egrets]


Turtle at Lakeview Park


Dolphins in front of the ship's bow


Coral


Wiley Coyote on the beach


Autumn Splendor on a Nature Trail


Passionflower seed pod with dew drop


Coral Beans

§ About the Weekend...and About Comments

By the time the Day of the Dead Festival began downtown on Saturday, I was in no mood to get there. I had done 6 loads of laundry that day, and I was a bit on the worn-out side of the day.   I just didn't want to spend hours there and come home afterwards when it closed at midnight.  But, I still wore my T-shirt and leggins all day. LOL I'm bummed that I missed it, but if all goes well, maybe there is next year....I can attend next year?  If not, oh well, life goes on.  And to top it off, I spent the 'in between time' of loads of laundry, taking down and packing Halloween decor away [some don't like Halloween, but I do and I don't care about how others feel about it, some even begrudge me in their comments here at Hootin' Anni's, and that's okay. Not everyone enjoys it like I do, but I do wish those that comment negatively would keep their thoughts to themselves. It'll never stop ME from enjoying the ambiance...it's a fun seasonal day for me...always has been!!!  And Day  of the Dead coincides with it, so it can be a busy time for me also].  Then, I brought out the few items I have for Thanksgiving. 

Sunday was a beautiful day, the weather was super. Cool, dry and a perfect morning for walking and in search of Autumn colors and critters around the Coast....

Dew laden Autumn leaves


On Golden Pond


Red berries


Sunrise through the palm fronds


notice the dragonfly?


Praying Mantis


Walking stick insect


...A doe and a buck in the park

And while driving around and through parks yesterday, the Malfunction Lamp [engine] came on on my car's instrument panel.  I will get offline now, and call our mechanic!  Ugh.  I am not looking forward to this.

§ The Happenings....

It's been kinda a busy week for me...besides out walking, visiting the aquarium, the botanical gardens, birding at parks, getting oil changed in the car [again?....time flies!!], some legal paper work updating with the lawyer, a couple of luncheons, being highly disappointed in the Houston Astros World Series so far, volunteering to help make pizzas for a kitchen, helping Bud do some yard work before the cold and wet front moved into our area....at least I helped until I tried to cut my thumb off with the hedger! And then, most of all, working on resizing hundreds of photos for the week off the camera card to get uploaded on my blog!!

So, this will be a bit eclectic in composition today while I continue getting the botanical and bird photos of the aquarium in order...hang in there. Some are what made me quite opinionated, while others are of a fun nature [at least I hope]....

...first: over kill [click on images to open up lightbox slideshow, enlarging them].

Y'all know that Halloween is my favorite fall 'holiday'. But when I drove by this home in the King's Crossing area of town the other day, I had to pull off the road and take photos. Just to see if you agree with me. There is no rhyme or reason to this themed yard!! Dozens of hot air figures swaying in the breeze making it eerie even in daylight, but too much with no reason of placement...just a Halloween NIGHTMARE!!! Agree?

....second: A church's pumpkin patch. I like the white pumpkins and within the last decade I've seen quite a few 'turquoise green' pumpkins. Did you know that there is a purpose of placing this color pumpkin out so trick or treaters will know you have allergy free treats for them? Here is the explanation:

Placing a teal pumpkin on your doorstep or at the front of your home is the first step. You can add your location to the Teal Pumpkin Project map to let trick-or-treaters know your stop is food-allergen safe. Recommended non-food treats include small containers of bubbles, spider rings, glow sticks, pencils, stickers or finger puppets. And if you do participate in the Teal Pumpkin Project, that doesn’t mean you can’t also provide traditional treats as well. If you do provide both non-food and candy treats, FARE recommends asking trick-or-treaters if they have a food allergy or just give each child the option to choose which kind of treat he or she would like.

....third:

A couple of funnies. My sister texted me that she and a friend went to a scarecrow festival in her town in Colorado. She attached a photo telling me that she thought of me right away and couldn't resist getting a photo of the 'crow. [notice the bird on the scarecrow's right shoulder?] I thought it was a HOOT!  And besides, it's much better dressed than I am when out birding!!

"birdwatcher scarecrow" -on the sign

Now, my photo taken...I couldn't resist this. The implication was funny. Sorry, I couldn't get a selfie of it and stand behind the sign at the same time!! But, you should be able to get the gist of it all!!!!

...and lastly. If you're not into the grossness of blood and injuries skip this!!!! The blades on the hedger caught my thumb when I accidentally hit the trigger when attempting to move it from where I was working....it lodged in the thumb, cutting a good slice before I lifted my hand from the power button. I worked my thumb loose and rushed indoors with Bud right behind me. We 'doctored my owie" and I called it a day while I sat outdoors on the patio bench and watched him finish the work. This photo is actually a cleaner version of the initial photo where the hand was much more bloody.  Bud made me a thumb splint 'cause for the past few days since it happened, you don't know how many times I've hit it on something and the pain is there again!!  The wound is healing nicely and hopefully no or little scarring.  So far, no infection.  I probably should have gone and got stitches, but I just didn't want to. 

§ The Colors of Autumn...

There are times there is a lull in my photo ops for Day Trippin'. I have a collection of photos...natural beauties, and ones that I guess can be considered natural oddities.

Today, I share those photos...

I'll begin with the odd first. There is no rhyme or reason other than I saw something in the tree cuts that others may not:

Where the limb was cut, the mold left behind on this particular day seemed to show up as a bird feather [Ummmmm, Anni, what OTHER kind of feather is there other than BIRD?!!].  Do you think so too?

For years, this tree's broken limb has had this 'phenomenon' etched within, and it's never changed much over the decade.  To me it's still a skull.  I've shown this before, but I can't seem to find the post to compare it.  addendum:  I FOUND my previous post HERE. It HAS changed some, but not that much!

Now, some of nature's beauties:

More deer...I see a herd just about every time I get to the park in the early morning hours.

...and one more grouping. Nature's golden glow of Autumn. Some I captured remind me of dahlias, but they're really sunflowers...double sunflowers:

Standard sunflower blooms have a central disk, comprised of thousands of small flowers, surrounded by several outer rows of colorful petals. Double sunflower varieties, however, produce layers upon layers of petals that either replace the central disk of small flowers completely or hide it under thousands of fluffy petals.