No kids! It is NOT an ice cream truck...

First, time for more talk about the seasons...

No not seasonings... although I will show you the latest picture of my pantry...
but at the present moment I am talking about seasons. Ya know like:

Spring, Summer, Fall, and winter?

I know I have mentioned that fall is here and I will be showing you fall pictures ad nauseam for awhile but it is just so pretty I can not help myself. Back home the landscape did show a little bit of the seasonal changes but boy oh boy... it sure does here. Even while the leaves are turning, they are starting to fall... fall down that is.

Here are a few fallen fall leaves that were knocking on my front door. ;)

Leaves are not the only thing falling. Dead branches are falling too. As a matter of fact, as I sat here thinking about the blog this morning I heard another one fall outside my window. Not too close but close enough for me. A while back, on one of our visits here after we bought the place, we were staying in the old cabin when we heard a tree go down. We were sitting at the table talking when we first heard the cracking... and we looked at each other and said what was that? and then silence... and then boom. It shook the ground. Oh dear!

Not to worry though. David cut out the bad trees around the house and had tree people come look at others to make sure they will not be falling on our new pad. It is all clear... I guess. Um. I hope.

Anyway... back to the leaves.

We are really enjoying this and I have to say it is nice to hear that the local folks still love the colors as well. So often when one lives somewhere there is a particular natural beauty, people start to take it for granted. One kind of forgets about how beautiful something is that you see everyday... but David and I have been lucky enough to live in a few places where you can not help to be reminded by the beauty of the surroundings. I was pleased to hear the residents still discuss the colors and even have named certain trees and watch them and photograph them each year. I will show you a picture of "Big Red" in a later post once she is in full color.

Where we lived before... well... there is really no forgetting about the beauty of these:

A forest of maples, birches, etc sound like what you think they would sound like this time of year. They rustle. It is almost like the forest is nestling in for the long winter ahead.

A forest of redwoods on the other hand... well... they are mostly silent, with just the mist to tickle your ears... the silence in fact is so thick that your hearing seems to withdraw. Suddenly you find yourself having to rely on all of your other senses to take in the magnificence of it all... you even find yourself compelled to speak softly.

Well, last night was date night. That was what we jokingly called it anyway, we have been so busy it was nice to just take a few moments alone to relax.

We have a spot down the road and up a hill that we are going to be visiting a lot... especially this time of year. It is in the National Forest... the same one that surrounds our home and the lake... and is up on the top of a big rock. It is called Ludwig's rock. Dunno who Ludwig is... or was.

I am pretty confident though that it is probably NOT either of these two Ludwigs:

Anyway...

The view around Ludwig's rock during the fall... in particular at sunset... will be quite a sight to see. Here are a few pictures so far. That is us, by the way, sitting on the bench on top of the Rock... that is my forehead coming out of David's nose and shoulder. I have to work on that taking a picture of one's self thing.

This is just the beginning of the fall... I will watch it and get a picture when that whole area above has turned and post it here in a couple weeks.

The bench has carved into it "to everything there is a season".
Dunno who did that either. I am a regular font of information.

And here I am below clinging perilously to the edge of the cliff just so you can see this lovely picture! Um. Just kidding... David was being artsy and held the camera at a weird angle. I dunno why.

Now... my pantry! Yayyy! David put the shelving strips on there and then we got out some woodscraps for the shelves.

I have been priming them so that they match the lovely primer interior of everything else in the house and soon I can finally start putting stuff away. We ended up doing pretty well with the storage.. each of the bathrooms has a very deep closet, the kitchen has a pantry, the guestroom has a big old closet (thanks Dad!) and we have a hanging rack in the control room... and then of course the cubbies in the loft bedroom (part of one of which Delta has taken over) and then we of course have our little knee wall dressers (thanks comrade workers in China!) and the dresser I have been carrying around for years... which is also in the guestroom as it is a taller one.

Still will probably have to take stuff to St. Vinnies. Oh well... it is one of those things 'they' always say. If you have not used it in ::fill in time here:: then you won't ever use it. Get rid of it.

As a side note I think I finally got a picture of the crooked house out on the highway. I have slowed down and taken several pictures just trying to capture all of the angles just right but have had a hard time doing so... you see the house leans in EVERY direction.

I did not want to just get out and walk around and take a picture because there is a farmer that lives there... not in that barn.. but in a house right next to it. I did not want him taking any pot shots at me. The farm has been in the family for ages apparently. He has cows in there sometimes by the way... he still uses this barn actively. He used to drive a crooked truck that looked about the same but recently got a new one I hear. The fellow also is known for having a herd of cats he feeds. I have heard stories about him being seen at his gate with the food and instead of the cows being lined up... the cats are.

His brother lives just down the road and his place is neat as a pin, whatever that means.

Anyway... there are a lot of interesting characters around here. Of course there are characters anywhere you live but I think it is always fun hearing about them. I LOVE the stories.

For instance, there is a fella here in town who actually lives down the road from us. He and his wife have been here for ages. He is known for several things, one of which is that he is a very friendly man. The other is that throughout the day he enjoys several beers or cocktails and gets to visiting... now to visit anyone here you must drive.

You can figure part of the story from that info right there.

Anyway... you see him driving here and there and if it is early in the day and he sees you on the road he quickly rolls down the window and sticks his hand out and points at you as you drive by. I just wave and smile.

As the day goes on, and the motor skills diminish, first he can not seem to get the window down fast enough so he just points at you from inside... then he goes from pointing to a sort of wave.. and then maybe.. just maybe his wave has turned into a hand slowly moving upwards. He also stops... just stops... wherever he may be.. right in the middle of the road (no pulling over for this fellow) and pees. It might be in your yard, or by your driveway, or really just about anywhere. You will see his truck stopped and you know what he is doing. Just FYI - he drives very slow and everyone knows his truck when they see it.

People are interesting.