The doodle patient

Well here's my poor boy the day he got back from the vet...he looks so sad and downtrodden but I think he's a bit stoned from the Tylenol 3's  he's on...

The abcess in his throat was probably due to a broken tooth which the vet removed...

...And then opened the abcess up to clean it out and put a drain tube in....

Anyway that was about 5 days ago and this morning, as you can see, he's back to his old self and wanting to go for a swim....sorry bud, not for another week...

wishful thinking...

Had some early morning visitors again...

 

Check out the ears on that baby!! Looks like she could take off with those things!

The light was so pretty this morning out in the garden and on the barn.....

This will probably be one of the last really nice days of sun before the rains come in this week...pretty good stretch of weather...a gorgeous summer and autumn...better buckle down...grey and wet will soon arrive...good times in the studio ahead...

A short one...

We didn't manage much of a walk today either because of Griff's surgery yesterday...he's groggy and depressed about the cone so I take it off when I can keep my eye on him...we did get out to the barnyard to feed the goats and chickens and discovered a beautiful patch of mushrooms.

 

No wonder mushrooms are associated with fairy tales and goblins...they really are strange and fantastical plants the way they emerge from the ground and often transform their shape as they age... 

I believe these ones are shaggy manes and are in the inkcap family...when they get about a week old they turn into this black, oozzing mess and look quite poisonous. But for now they are pretty lacey things...

Doodle blues...

Unfortunately Griffin couldn't go on his walk this morning since he had to go to the vet for an abcess in his throat..poor guy. Instead I thought I would go back in my photo archives and post some owl pictures.
Griff and I were walking along the main road in Erinan, when we heard robins and stellar jays sqauking like crazy. From past experience I know this certain call to be a warning that there is an owl or hawk around. All you have to do is start looking into the trees close to the sqauking and you'll probably see what all the commotion is about.     

 

This guy was up in a mossy big maple and didn't look like he was causing too much trouble but it was fledging season for the smaller birds, so I imagine he had breakfast on his mind.

This is a great horned owl and probably one of the biggest in the owl family. Up close they are probably about 3 feet tall and with those big ear tufts, I can see why the smaller birds feel threatened. What a treat to see such a magnificent bird and a great way to start the day.                                                                                            

Favorite colors of the day....

The final days of summer are winding down and the colors everywhere say 'fall'. I had found the remnants of a package of sunflower seeds from last year way back in July and scattered them here and there not knowing what would happen...I figured either I plant them or some little mouse or bird will find them lying around and gobble them up. Lo and behold they came up in these gorgeous rusty tones just in time for autumn.
                                                                                   

  

So out on our walk this morning I was keeping my eye out for more shades of autumn. Out here on the coast, we don't get the intense colors of leaves changing like they do back east so we make due with what we can get.                                                            

Huckleberry leaves are pretty backlit by the morning sun.
Crisp apples ripening up in the orchard.

                                                                                                           

The River

The visitor

Yesterday afternoon we had a visitor to the orchard. This handsome young fella decided to check out how the apple harvest was coming along and would have been quite content to hang around until Griffin chased him up a fir tree. I always feel lucky to see a bear since their habitat is quickly disapearing around here. We don't call any conservation officer or anything like that, rather let them go about their buisness and take what may fall on the ground. If they get destructive in the trees, we send Griffin out to do his job which takes care of the bear for a while. Its interesting to note that he's not much bigger than Griff when you look at him but he probably weighs 3 times more and...oh...take a close look at those claws! Not to be taken lightly... but I like to think that they feel somewhat safe in our woods.

The morning was crisp and damp this morning but the sun was shining through the trees and beginning to warm things up. I love the change of any season but I think fall is one of my favorites. Sweaters are brought out, the wood stove is stoked for the first time in months and in general its time to cozy  up again and get ready for winter.

 We met up with Griffins long time pal Rosie and took them down to Kemp lake where the mist was just coming off the lake.      

                                            
   This time of year there are hundreds of spider webs out in the meadows and its somewhat of a dodgeball game to get through without getting 'webbed' and ruining some poor spiders hard work. They are truly works of engineering and art and I could spend hours looking at the intricate, delicate  way they are made.

 

So here's praise for the simple brown meadow spider who spends patient hours in the sunlight just waiting for that perfect meal.