Thinking of Fall

Guess what??  The rope for the tree swing has been ordered from Amazon and should be here any day!  I am so excited and will keep you posted.  Won't be long now!  I may soon be swinging out over the goat lot!

Don't you just love these crisp cool mornings!  Fall is such a pretty time of the year.  The leaves are not turning so much around here yet, but lots of leaves are falling, probably because of the long dry spell we've had.  I could actually start raking leaves now.  Just remembered this picture from last year...

The squirrels are busier than usual...fussing in the trees and scurrying about burying acorns and pieces of corn found in the yard.  Wonder if they are telling us we are in for a rough winter? Never have I seen them eat as many new pine cones...pieces are scattered up and down our rock path!

A few years back Poppy and I were working outside one spring day...we had raised beds back then.  Suddenly a small, young squirrel came running up to us and hopped up on the side of one of the beds.  Well, I ran for the front door thinking something was wrong with this squirrel and it would attack us.  Poppy reached down and picked it up, saying "Mel, come back, this squirrel won't hurt you".  To this day we have no idea where this squirrel came from, or who raised it, but we became the best of friends.  At night he slept in a little nest in a cage and early each morning I let him out.  He lived in the yard just like all the other squirrels, but he loved to play hide and seek with me and would actually frighten me when he would jump onto the tree I was hiding behind.  When I clapped, he would jump into my hands.  This went on for months then one day I stopped at the tree he was playing on, we played for a while, I held him, and saying to him that I needed to get busy, I put him back on the tree.  I never saw him again after that day, which broke my heart.  Remembering this makes me sad.  I get so attached to, and love these animals so much.
 

I suppose one of the most, "not so enjoyable" things that comes with fall...those stinking little green stink bugs.  How do so many find their way in?

Yuk!  Have you ever vacuumed up one of these bugs?  I have and the smell if awful!  It lingers!!   Nothing to do but change the vacuum bag!  I've heard that these green stink bugs like darker houses like a log cabin, and lady bugs move into white houses.  That reminds me of mama.  Lady bugs loved mama's house!!!  I don't know which caused mama more stress...lady bugs or squirrels!!! :)

Another sign of fall that I enjoy...those cute, "teddy bear" looking wooly worms.   Wooly worms amaze me crawling so fast.  I'm always seeing them crossing the highway.  I swerved the other day to avoid hitting one on my way to town, but may have hit it...I didn't look back to see....These cuties are probably more accurate at predicting the weather than most weathermen!!!  ;)  just kidding

After a bit of reading I found out that the wooly worm is the larval stage of the Isabella tiger moth.   As far as the wooly worm predicting the weather...when the brown bands on a wooly worm are narrow, it means a harsh winter.  The wider the brown band the milder the winter will be.  Lets try to remember that!!! :)

Didn't mean to ramble on so...thank you for stopping by.

Love,
Henny Penny