The Night of the Spooks is Coming

Well, I waited til the last minute to carve the pumpkin. I didn't take the time to get shots of the actual carving process like my niece Jennifer.

A Bowl Full of Green Cherries?

I have heard that you can fry these things (while they are still green) but I have never tried it. I suppose it would work better with the larger varieties. I picked these a couple of days ago, right before we were expecting a freeze. They will probably turn to a nice orange if not red.

A Bowl Full of Cherries?

You have heard the saying "Life isn't a bowl full of cherries." Its really more like a bowl of cherry tomatoes. This is the last of our harvest for this season. Most of our full-sized tomatoes turn soft before they turn red. These little morsels are hanging in there until the first frost, which should be any day now.

Shark Teeth

My next door neighbor's wife found a couple of shark teeth on the beach last weekend. I was quite impressed. I don't think I have ever seen any quite as nice as the big one, not even in beach marts. Maybe she will make a necklace?

World Series

Don't know how many of you enjoy watching the World Series, but in case you didn't know, the first game was last night. The Phillies are playing the Devil Rays from Tampa Bay. Have you heard any of these rules for play in this dome? I thought a home run had to go over the fence in fair territory. I thought a ground rule double had to bounce over the fence. Thee I go thinking again. Oh, you wanna know who won? It was Phillies 3-2. If you wanna see highlights just go to Yahoo! Sports or Fox Sports or anywhere else on the web that you can find it. You don't need me to show the game highlights. You know you have to have express written consent to show stuff like that.

Fall Trip to the "Mountains"

Yesterday we took our fall trip to the "mountains." We started out like we go when we are heading to Louisville, KY (where our grandson lives) and for a minute we tried to pretend we were on our way there. We headed up 52 and instead of crossing over to I-77 we stayed on 52 where we pass all those shops that sell pumpkins, apples, apple cider and all of the other mountain stuff that you see in autumn. We didn't have but a few hours so we didn't go very far, but it was a pleasant afternoon to go up on the parkway. Have you ever wondered why you drive on a parkway, and park in a driveway? But I digress. You knew if I got anywhere in the neighborhood I would have to take a few shots of Pilot Mountain, or is it Mount Pilate? In any case I tried to take some view that I hadn't taken before.

Flying Ants?

We had quite a number of these ants with wings on our deck yesterday. We looked these up to make sure they weren't termites. Termites are pale or white and they don't have a "waist." So we are pretty sure these are some kind of ant with wings.

Oak Tree Seeds

Acorns, acorns everywhere. The top two shots show how much a certain area of my backyard is covered in acorns. The next two shots show how some have started sprouting already. You can tell I grew up in the city. I don't think I have ever seen this before. The bottom pic shows a leaf from the tree that dropped these acorns. Who can tell me what kind of oak tree this is?

African Baobab

These shots were taken from the DVD series, Planet Earth. I had seen about five of the segments, but had not seen this one called Seasonal Forests. Again, I recommend this series to anyone, and there is so much more than I can cover here, but I would like to focus on the African Baobab tree. I really didn't know that this tree has a very lovely flower to bloom in the rainy season. You can see (in the video) that the flower blooms within one minute. Another shot shows a mouse lemur licking the nectar of the flower after hybernating during the dry season. And the last couple of shots show a giant hawk moth collecting nectar and by travelling from tree to tree they cross-pollinate.

Just a Few More...

Here are just a few more shots of our dear Eli...He is precious, don't you think?

Stroller Ride

Here we are going for a stroller ride. He looks "as snug as a bug in a rug"...whatever that means.

More Eli

Here are some more shots of Eli. In this bottom shot, we thought he looked like a monk in his cowl.

More Eli

Here we see Eli practicing his Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil and See No Evil. (He needs to practice his Hear No Evil just a bit more.)

Eli

And here we start with the pics of our beloved grandson, Eli.

A Few Shots On Our Way (To Louisville)

Here are just a few shots of our trip going to Louisville. I have tried to show some of the fall colors we saw.