guess who's coming to dinner

 We aren't having as many days like this as the season progresses!

turkey vulture pair

It's overcast and chilly.  There are a few seed heads still hanging on in the garden...

milkweed

...a few bits of color still to be seen...

...still a few really late insect eggs, now devoid of hatchlings, decorating the screens...

leaf-footed bug eggs

...but after the leaves fall and before the snow starts, it's a pretty drab landscape, and we're staying cozy indoors.  Thankfully, there's plenty to do during this busy season, and speaking of thanks...

...we had our usual turkey feast this year with so much food that Todd has had Thanksgiving twice a day for 4 days now and still has another day or two to go!  

Claudia was concerned that we wouldn't have enough food, so she wanted to contribute...

She was so busy bragging about her big score, though, that she didn't notice that this mouse was playing possum.  While she was preening, it popped up and streaked off the porch.  Oh, well!  Claudia should be very familiar with possums and their ways...one visited her 'house' one night this week for a friendly visit, but she chased him off.

Drama!  

Other than Thanksgiving, recent bakes include some delicious pumpkin muffins...

...and a confetti layer cake with a lot of sprinkles.

I've had some time to deal with a few cat dramas, like cat-proofing their favorite cuisine, my house plants (with some bitter apple spray).  They had to inspect it...

...and then ignore it.  Maybe I'll be able to have house plants after all!  I've also tried working on the kittens vs. Calliope dynamic...

...but she remains defiant and grouchy.  They'll work it out, I guess!

Lots of sleepy kittens during these dark days.

Well, inside.  Outside, Claudia is still busy, busy, busy!

We, too, will be pretty busy over the next few weeks.  We've got Christmas prep to do with cards and decorating, birthday stuff, holiday orders increasing for our business, and then holiday travel...the New Year...a week of rest, and then a big multi-day toy show in mid-January to prep for.  I struggle mightily with the hustle-bustle of Halloween through New Years and I am always exhausted by January 1st, but at least it's a good month to be quiet and cozy by the fire to recharge.  

Bosewichte 2018

Cats get it.  ;)  

Have a great week!

waiting for a star to fall

 After several mostly-dry weeks, we finally got some rain...

...and an absolutely gorgeous hard frost.

Still, it's mainly on the warmer side, even though there's usually a skim of ice at the edges of the front pond.

Thanksgiving has come and gone, and as usual, I made a feast.  In college, I used to carefully recopy my notes to get the contents straight in my mind, and I do the same thing with recipes...just a bit messier.

We ate...

...and spent the rest of the day like this:

Oh, I did find a real gem.  I made 6 mini (single-serving) pies - apple, cherry, and chocolate.  I'm not much of a pie person, though, so I added a half-batch of cookies  Now, I've tried dozens of oatmeal cookie recipes in my lifetime, and this seemed unlikely to overtake my beloved oatmeal/coconut/chocolate chunk one.  Somehow, though, it did.

Sally's Baking Addiction Iced Oatmeal Cookies

Plain and unassuming, sure, but with crispy edges and a soft center.  Pulverizing half the oats is a genius move, and the icing that tastes too sweet and sharp on its own somehow elevates a not-very-sweet cookie into something special.  This is going into rotation around here!

Otherwise, we had a bit of excitement this week.  I was outside at dawn, taking photos, when I noticed something unusual in the sky beyond the barn.

I used my Zoom to get a bit closer:

And more:

This was no airplane trail!  I submitted it to the American Meteor Society and got this terse response:

Not a meteor/fireball.  Someone online suggested falling space junk.  I'm dying to know what it was, but googling "strange things falling from sky" produced some, well, strange results.  Hopefully I'll have more time after the holidays to delve into this mystery!

Until then, I'll just keep an eye on the sky.  It's awfully pretty this time of year.

Have a great week!  

pie-eyed

 The feeders are full and the birds are out.

The deer too, from time to time.

Check out that leap!

The new bed is completely seeded...

...just in time for the rain.

It's cool enough now for Claudia to spend a lot of time in her little house...

...and it makes for a truly majestic morning fog.

Thanksgiving has come and gone!  Even though it was just the two of us here, we had a great time, with too much food...

...a great nap, and the annual viewing of Dumb and Dumber.  We only had one unexpected guest at the table:

I made a quick decoration:  a pie garland that took about 30 minutes from beginning to end.  I cut out wedges of construction paper and scored some paper strips for the accordion-style pie crust:

A quick trim of the crust and a taped-on cotton ball completed the pumpkin pie.  For the cherry, I cut out strips of construction paper and used double-sided tape to make a quick grid.

Then I trimmed them to size.  Voila!  Nothing fancy, but it was a nice festive touch to hang over the table!

Now we're looking toward the Christmas season, which begins with the world's best Advent calendar! I love the idea of little daily gifts leading up to Christmas.  I'm kind of a gift fiend and Todd is the lucky recipient of my focus.  :)

We haven't had a bit of snow or ice, and temperatures have remained in the low 50s during the day.  Still, the short, dark days prompt a lot of cat naps.

Bosewichte has been sick with terrible allergies and spends a lot of time on my desk, snoring away.  It's a nice soundtrack for early winter.

Have a great week!