smashing pumpkins

What a beautiful pop of color!

I've left our fall pumpkins out because they're so pretty, and for the animals, but they're slowly starting to decay.  One after another, Todd tosses them into the garden, where they split and reveal their fantastically vivid guts.  A new usefulness: birds steal the seeds and possums scoop out the flesh, and we admire the saturated color against the barren ground.  What a treat in January!

We had thirty stingy minutes of snow yesterday, and the remaining pumpkins, even those in a dejected slump, looked cheerful.

Snow!

It's been so warm here, in the sixties just a few days ago.  Everything is confused.  My bulbs were starting to sprout.

Bee balm was making a low carpet under a bird feeder.

German chamomile peeked between stepping stones.

Our muskrats have loved the warm days, making frequent laps around the pond with their beloved cattails.

Spring peepers, feeling the warmth, have burrowed out of the mud and begun making their spring song.  Our nesting pair of herons have been by to take advantage of the bounty.

Turkey vultures keep a vigilant watch from above, observing the uncharacteristic January activity and waiting for an opportunity for a good meal.  

We've been living in a long, delayed autumn with the warmth and frequent fog.  The dark days make it feel more wonderfully cozy inside.  

Now the weather is turning decidedly colder.  The spiderwebs that were hastily spun in late December's warmth are filled with snow.

Claudia, now positively fat on late-season voles and canned cat food discarded by our haughty girls, will be coming into the garage this week when the temperature dips.  She's used to this and seems happy enough to have an occasional glimpse at the frozen landscape.

The cats will be warm and fed...the bird feeders will be filled...and every so often, when we need a lift, we'll smash another pumpkin.

Have a great week!