October 2021

Okay... It's actually the end of October as I type this, and I just uploaded all of my September blog posts. And I haven't actually made ANY October blog posts because I was focusing on September.

But now I need to think about filling in the October posts while also working on the "current" posts in November... because wouldn't it be nice to get caught up some day?!

:) (haha. yeah, funny!)

Well anyway. Going back to October First:

We've gotten two decent rain showers in the past two weeks ... and all of a sudden I noticed how Green it is out there! (The dark green of my White Oak leaning tree on the right.)

Some leaves are changing...

Sun Choke blossoms. (aka Jerusalem Artichoke.)

Yeah... I def need to plant some of those next year!

Happy Favas...

Sunflowers are starting to wind down.

Oh wow, so bright and lovely...

And a Song Sparrow in the beans.

Awesome Raccoon Art...

Suspish is my favorite local graffiti artist, she regularly tags under this bridge that's on the bike path on the way to the Community Garden.

The Raccoon art showed up yesterday, so it was rather ironic that when the Eugene Parks Newsletter showed up in my inbox today, the lead story was about removing graffiti. And not only that, but the top photo is of Parks Employee Amanda, painting over graffiti at the other side of that exact bridge! ha!

∞ Eugene Newsletter: Wiping Out Graffiti in Parks

I have walked by Amanda painting over graffiti many times. and I always want to ask her why she bothers! *laughs* She provides a blank slate for more graffiti.

Granted, there's a few "1312" and the odd f word sprayed, but none of this is approaching art and ... maybe those "should" be painted out? I don't know.

But the beautiful art? Why roll over that? I don't understand why you would paint over a butterfly. But she did.

(um, foo... I can't find my photo of the butterfly. bummer!)

But I did learn of a very cool thing that Amanda did... the stencil mural at the Ruth Bascom Riverbank path, under the Owosso Walking Bridge! It's beautiful...

Finally, finally got a good pic of my friend Blazey...

When cats squint their eyes, that's their version of a smile or happy greeting. Go ahead and try it! Squint your eyes at the next cat you see... they will probably smile right back at you!

Blazey is so happy to see friendly humans, most of the time he squints his eyes so hard, they are completely shut! *laughs* I have so many pics of him with his eyes closed!

Hardly any spots on this Spotted Towhee!

*laughs*...

Hey cool! Three fire trucks behind the Events Center. Testing and re-rolling their hoses.

And having fun with the ladder...

Yes! Less than a million new cases of covid in the US, and still coming down! 719,974 new cases, averaging 102,854 new cases every day.

The US is at 705,383 dead, and averaged 1,803 people dying every day of covid, this past week.

In my town there are 620 active covid cases, a significant drop from where we've been swirling around 750! Still 57 hospitalized and 13 people died in the past week.

Raindrops and dew catching the sunlight...

A female Northern Flicker...

A glance up at me, as we walk by each other...

I don't know why, but I like looking at the turning Ash Tree leaves.

And I really, really don't know why I keep trying to bother trying to take portraits of the Cedar Waxwings!

Oh! I love it when I have a series of photos with the same bird!

So pretty. And so obsessed over the Sunchokes! :)

So! Many! Photos! to share in a single day!

WHY?!

Just lucky, I guess! :)

A male Gadwell... and a crawdad? huh.

Is the crawdad alive? I think so. But why is he right at the surface? And why is he hanging out with a duck? So many questions!

Today I moved a bunch of Woolly Bears off the bike path! I quickly realized if I Gently scared them, they would curl up into a ball and then it was super easy to scoop them up.

And I finally got a pic of someones face! So Shiny!

And Dang, look at that sky!

I saved the best for last... A Great Egret!

These birds are shy and are usually too far away for the camera. And then there's the whole light thing with the camera and the whole exposure thing with the camera and usually the Egrets just end up as an elegant white blob in my photos! haha!

So this is the first time I've gotten a decent portrait of a Great Egret, and I'm super excited!!

I think my new thing is going to be taking photos of the interesting skies...

I live in western Oregon... so the sky is either gray, possibly raining, because it's winter. Or it's blue, sun beaming down and way too hot, because it's summer. :)

So, yeah. Anything in between these two extremes is cause for note!

*laughs*

Botanical: I just love the contrasts on this beautiful Red Osier Dogwood ... the white blooms, the autumn purple leaves and the still green leaves in the background.

And some cuteness... an Eastern Fox Squirrel. (yes, invasive but cute!)

And some more cuteness... a Bewick Wren, way up in the tree.