Transition from fall to winter

After an early snow:

It melted away within a few days, and golden leaves are still on the trees:

I guess it's still Falltime, even though it's easy to forget and accelerate the seasons in one's mind when the snow comes so early! It did get cold enough to light our ceremonial First Fire!

And the summer produce is gone. I am back to my daily apple, shared with you-know-who!

Getting ready for my morning run is quite a process nowadays. The snow melted and turned into slush, but at night it refreezes into ice! So I'm wearing studded Icebugs, which cannot be worn inside the house without damaging the floors. So I set my shoes on the welcome mat, harness up the girls, put on my coat and hat, etc, etc. Then when I'm allllll ready to go, I put on my shoes last! Look how patiently they wait!

Cricket cuddling with her favorite guy. DL is uneasy with this cuddle position. As soon as Cricket suspects I am doing something Interesting, she punches him in the balls and launches herself off his chest with those powerful back legs.

Last weekend, I accomplished my last pre-winter chore and expanded my Lazy Person's Garden. I sure don't feel like a Lazy Person during the establishment process! I have to break up the hard, Arctic soil and fill it with good stuff.

DL tells me to holler when I've filled the wheelbarrow with sod and weeds, and he rolls it to the bottom of the hill and dumps it there to compost.

Here is my newly expanded bed! Now that I've committed to doing a CSA every year, I'm just not gonna bother with veggies. Just herbs, perennial flowers, and easy annuals. This bed is all perennials and annuals that are accustomed to their seeds freezing, so I've already sprinkled them--there are columbines, veronicas, delphiniums, irises, and poppies. I also planted the lilies a friend had split from hers. I guess they reproduce from bulbs? Irises also propagate easily, and it would have been easy for me to dig one up from any wild patch, but these seeds were brought to me from the homestead of a very dear departed friend, and I want to have his irises on my home. The columbine seeds were mailed from Montana! This friend and I exchanged seeds last year!

Fall is still falling on Ester Dome.

A beautiful day!

But look! On top, it is winter! It was nice to walk around in fluffy snow with 100% confidence. My ankle didn't hurt at all, even the downhills! Now I wonder if part of my residual pain is tension and fear, and when I feel safe it doesn't hurt.

My patient companions!

When we got home, our yard looked strikingly pretty, too!

Happy Fall to all 14 of my loyal readers!

First Snow!

Look at all of the fireweed seeds there are floating in this pond! (I had gone over there to rinse my shoes since I had stepped in a dog turd, LOL)

A pretty day on our walk to the cranberry patch last weekend

Thistle loveslovesloves run up and down and everywhere. And then in true husky fashion, she comes back when I call her if she feels like it at the time.

Cricket stays closer to me recently. What a good girl! Of course, she is part pointer so the husky ridiculousness is diluted.

The ridge opposite us was gorgeous gold!

Sweet Thistle!

I tried to take a selfie with Cricket when she sat on the couch, and she capsized!

Miss Thistle loves bell peppers!

Now look! The first snow arrived on the 20th, the day before Equinox!

This one lone delphinium survived to be snowed upon. It will not go to seed, alas.

Princess Cricket iz comfy.

Queen Thistle iz comfy.

First Frost!

We got frost this gorgeous morning!

Look!

None of my sunflowers bloomed, but they have not frozen solid, so there is still hope!

Rhubarb leaf, touched by frost:

And we can move to cold-weather food now, which I love, like these braised ribs, with stir-fried cabbage on the side:

And duck noodles!

And minestrone!

And leftover spaghetti for breakfast!

We still have kohlrabi, so I am making them into quick pickles, kind of how Vietnamese people make with daikon.

Hmmm why no dog photos in the post? I must rectify. Here is one, on the trail, with our dogfriend Trout!

Oh Fall

That golden sun, that slanted light. It was so beautiful the other morning that I took a photo during my morning run. Something you have never seen before and may never see again, because Huskies Do Not Like Stopping, LOL.

Fall is starting to fall on Ester Dome

Look at these beautiful colors!

Brilliant gold dominates.

We explored a new side trail. I never knew that Ester Dome had ridges quite this steep. The trails with which I am familiar do not open to views like this.

Beautiful!

Cricket!

Thistle!

I was surprised to see this sign indicating "water". First of all, there is no shortage of water on Ester Dome. Creeks come streaming down the hillside in every direction. Secondly, there is no need to drink local water on Ester Dome. It's really close to town, and not an overnight destination. It's a dayhike kind of place, and it's easy to carry enough water for a dayhike. Nobody packs a water filter or Steri-pen for a dayhike! And yet, here was this sign reading "water" on top of a creek. I was like, No kidding? Water in a creek?. Nevertheless, I walked around the clump of vegetation to where the arrow indicated.

And came upon this lovely sight. A spring coming out of the hillside, to a clear pool. Copper cups had been set there, a nod to copper's role since antiquity for its antibacterial properties (modern doorknobs and hand railings are often made of the copper alloy brass, capitalizing on this same property). The copper cups were shiny and unoxidized. The old appearance of this water shrine was apparently an affectation. Also! The water itself was likely not safe to drink. The ground water under Ester Dome, like in many gold-mining areas, is rich in naturally-present arsenic. In fact, if you click the photo to enlarge, you can see where another passerby had carved "ARSNIC" into the sign.

Nevertheless, the sight deeply moved me.

It reminded me of the plaque on the door of St. Matthews.

"to all who are weary and need rest" To all who are thirsty and need water...

It's been a day and I'm still intrigued by the situation and turning it over in my mind. A person with the heart of a poet, but not much practical thought, made the shrine. And then a person with an equally caring heart, but more practical mind, but without enough formal education to know how to spell "arsenic", came along and carved the warning. But the second person didn't disrupt the shrine, either.

Report on Fuzzy Things

The fireweed was late to make fuzz this year, and I had worried. Why no fuzz? Would we get no fireweed next year? But now look at all the fuzz!

So much fuzz!!

Cricket loves her Daddy Most of All. I guess I am okay with this. I mean, being Second Best out of 7.6 billion is not bad, right?

Thistle looking both alert and suspicious!