Celebrating Fall! :)

 Today, for the first time that I can ever remember, my heart is Celebrating Fall on this very first day of the season!!! :) Usually it takes me awhile to let go of Summer, but not this year! :) Even though it's just the first day of Autumn, colors are already beginning to burst in a heavenly display of leaves, plump berries, blooms, grasses, fruit, and garden produce! :) The felines are enjoying the cooler, comfortable temperatures with me and have been following me around the yard and garden! :)
I'm so thrilled to welcome a new season, that I have two things planned to celebrate! The first is this blog post, and the second is to buy some mums and make a festive display of flowers, pumpkins and squash on the front deck! Who knows, maybe I'll even arrange a few big flower pots for extra fun and color!! :)
Now I'll hush and invite you to enjoy welcoming the season with me! :) ...

Happy Celebrating, Everyone!! :)

Happy Reading! :)

 Yesterday I did something I haven't done in Years!!! :) I stayed up with a good book! :)
 I just read the first few lines the previous night, to get a feel for it, and was instantly drawn in! As I was attempting to slow my mind to sleep, I put it aside and chose Sudoku, instead, as I knew there'd be no sleeping with this book! :)
 So yesterday, after we'd eaten, I decided to pick it up again. ... and I couldn't put it down! :) On occasion I'd hear a comment from my Honey, "Pretty funny, huh?" bringing my attention to the fact that I'd just giggled out loud, or, "Must be a good book." when I'd been silent for hours, lost in it's pages! :) When night came, I knew there'd be no sleeping until I knew the ending! :)
So when my Sweetie got ready for bed, I did too, so I could slip quietly into bed later, and told him that I was going to finish it before coming to bed. I made a point to read in the front room under a lamp that wouldn't cast a glow under the bedroom door, that may disturb him.
When I finally finished the last sentence of the story, I peeked at the kitchen clock and was surprised to see it was 2:30am! I felt like a school girl, staying up with my nose in a good book on a summer night! :)

The title of this fictional novel is Edenbrooke, written by Julianne Donaldson, and it is either her first or second book! Well done! :) It is a sweet, thrilling, suspenseful, page turning romance that was wholesome and thoroughly enjoyable! :)
At the top of the cover are the words "A Proper Romance". It was a True romance that was about Real Love, and not the cheep ones about lust that turned me off of reading romance novels years ago! :)
I'll be looking for new books by her, now! :)
If you're looking for a good page turner, I highly recommend this one! :)
Happy Reading! :)

Slug S.a.v.v.y! :)

I'm deliberately sparing you from a photo of today's blog post, as it's about slugs! :)
I've been noticing the slugs have been getting more and more thick around the yard in the mornings. I keep a 4-5" pot that's 5-6" deep, sitting in the veggie garden, with a thick plastic flower label by it. That way, when I see slugs on the cabbage, or elsewhere in the garden, I can flick them into the pot and get them out! :)
Today I noted that I had to be careful where I stepped, walking to the garden, because the lawn was Covered with slugs, and many of them were procreating with a cluster of eggs encircled within! ...
So I realized that ignoring the problem was actually Making things Much Worse! If I was to have a yard and garden that wasn't teaming with slugs, I needed to Act and Do Something to make things better! :)
So Act, I Did! :) I've declared War! :) I went around flicking slugs into the flower pot, and reasoning that they won't want to cross the road to get back to our property, started packing them across the road to the vacant tree property across the way! I made so many trips that I lost count, shaking the slugs onto the neighboring field grass! I'm hoping by re-directing their eating attention to the overgrown hay growing around the abandoned Christmas trees, they can do something Useful with themselves! :)
I know my efforts have made an improvement already, as I continued to fill the pot, (at least 12 or 13 times), until I couldn't find any more! :)
I found the little flower pot is the perfect size for the job, because those little bodies get heavy, heaped upon each other, and by the time it was full, it was heavy enough to want to empty it! :)
Since they procreate quickly, I plan to do a "slug patrol" every morning! :) I will not only patrol the yard and garden, but I will keep an eye on the road, and if they should start to cross back, I will bring out the Big Guns and sprinkle them with salt! :)
As I flicked slugs into the flower pot, moving around the mowed areas of our property, ... I thought about how many things in life are like the situation with the slugs. If we continue to put a blind eye to it, they will continue to get worse, and by doing nothing about it, we must share some of the responsibility and burden for things continuing to get further out of control! ...
When we notice a problem, we have the responsibility to Do something about it! :)
Like the situation with the slugs, it may not be a fun task, but when we address it, it feels good knowing we are taking necessary steps and making a marked improvement! :)
Tomorrow morning I'll be out doing another patrol of the grounds! :) It's showing "slug savvy"! :)

Frisky Felines! :)

 Apollo's face says it all! You can tell that he has energy to burn and he's feeling so good that he's not sure what to do first with himself! :)
With these hot summer days (today was in the 90's) the cats have spent the days napping in the shade. It's in the cool of the late evenings and early mornings that they come alive, and this morning they were feeling especially frisky! :)

 Mick and Sylvester decided to let off some of that pent up steam in a good ole' wrestling match! :)

 Are they done!? :)

 ... Now wait! ... I think I detect a little friskiness there yet! :)

 Cali investigates after one of them cries out, when they get just a little too rambunctious! :)

 They stop long enough to see they are both okay, ...

Then on goes the match! :)

 Cali moves in, thinking this has gone on long enough! :)

 Brother Apollo seems to agree! :)
And what is sister Gerdy doing all this time? ...

 She's hugging a tree! :) Look for yourself, ... I'm not making this up!! :)

 She's a gentle soul who likes her peaceful solitude! :)

 Apollo has his arm so deep in a mole hole, that it's up to his shoulder! They all love to hunt, and continually honor us with dead mice, voles, snakes, birds, and moles! Once they even caught a bat! :)

 As you can see, Sylvester and Mick are none the worse for wear, after their wrestling activities! :)

 Gerdy quite enjoyed her little haven in the shade and stayed there quite awhile! :)

 Apollo soon sought a shady spot of his own, as the sun began to build heat. :)

Cali gave me a pretty pose, (now that her kids had settled down), before I decided to find a cooler area of my own! :)
Enjoy the last of our summer days, everyone! :)

September Morn'! :)

 This summer a couple of Scrub Jays brought their babies to the improved bird station, and it was enjoyable watching them feeding them from the feeders! :)

 Now they are in the habit of being there, and are welcome guests! :)

 In the past we didn't see many Scrub Jays. It was mostly Stellar Jays, so it's fun to currently have both! :)

 Most of the summer song birds and hummers have left, with the exception of the American Gold Finches, which are commonly the last of the finches to leave since they have their babies later than the others. (This is due to their love of lining their nests with thistle down, which requires waiting for the thistle to go to seed to procreate.) You'll notice, now that mating season is over, the males bright yellow colors are now subdued, like the female's. :)

 The corn stalks have now reached their full height and the window of the tool shed can no longer be seen from the house! :)

 Summer is having her last dry breath, with temps' this week in the 80's and next week it's expected to be in the 70's! The nights are noticeably cooler now, and the morning dew, more thick! :)

 It makes a great early dance as the steam lifts up and evaporates! :)

The green house is bursting it's seems with both tomato plants and morning light! :)
The calendar says we have 2 and a half weeks left of summer! The day temp's and dry weather agree with the calendar! However their's no denying that Fall is in the air this crisp September morn'! :)