Fall weather

Fall weather arrived on Monday with a cold front and rain off and on. There was new snow in the mountains, some 16 inches or so. It has been like that for three days now and already the leaves are starting to turn. Here are some pictures of one of the burr oaks starting to turn color. As I took these pictures I was nearly attacked  ( in a friendly sort of way) by an over-eager squirrel we have nicknamed "Nikki" since she's got a small nick in her left ear. She's a mother and had a brood this summer and gets very hungry when she's nursing a batch of babies. She learned that we were good sources of food for hungry mother squirrels. I was out taking a few pictures and she was so anxious for a peanut she practically tripped me as I tried to take the shots. A lot of squirrels hang around and we can't resist feeding them.

Here she is climbing the door. You can see the nick. She's a bit blurry because she never stops moving.  It's really funny when she runs toward the opening door as the cat is going out - they end up touching noses.  He doesn't chase her but he will take a mild swat at her if she gets too close. We collected a bunch of acorns from the park last week but Dale forgot to take them out of his bike bag when we got back.  By the next morning there wasn't an acorn left but there was a big hole chewed through the bag.

The rain has started up again now - it's one of those 3-day weather funks we occasionally get here. By the weekend it will  probably be hot and sunny again. We have a good store of wood stocked up now that we've gathered all summer, and we started firing up the wood stove on Monday. It's so nice and toasty.