October in Pictures

October is a grand month for taking photographs. Here's what it looked like in my neck of the woods.

An early frost had killed off most of the vegetation at our community garden patch...

...but one stand of sunflowers survived.

Poppy pods.

We grew all of these buttercup and acorn squashes in our community garden plot. We also grew the tomatoes in the background, but not the bananas!

The funny spiky fruit of a dogwood tree.

Because summer heat and dryness lasted into the second week of October, many of the usual indicators of autumn were late in coming. These shrubs were some of the first to turn.

This maple in an exposed spot also provided some early color.

When the rains finally came, the mushrooms soon followed!

The katsura leaves change early every year, so they had all already fallen off the trees when the long dry spell ended.

The arrival of autumn painted the hydrangeas in colors of great complexity.

This creek runs behind the stable where I ride horses. It was there where, for the first time, despite spending 26 autumns in the Pacific Northwest, I saw the salmon returning to spawn for the first time.

Sockeye salmon turn red and green during spawning season.

The photos don't do any justice to the experience of actually seeing them in the flesh.

It was amazing to see these big, bright fish swimming in the creek and to know that they'd survived years in the ocean before returning right here, the place where they were born!

Fallen leaves give this bench a desolate air.

I've been grooming Drifter on the weekends while building strength to start riding again. The other day Syd seemed very sleepy--and was sporting some nice braids!

I discovered the reason for his fatigue attached to his stall door: he had been busy winning ribbons in jumping events the day before!

I got to spend a four-day weekend with my collie friend, Mr. Gorgeous!

His winter coat hasn't grown all the way in yet, but his summer haircut has grown out enough that he looks very handsome once again!

He spent some of his time keeping an eye on the squirrels...

...but he spent most of it sleeping. Mr. Gorgeous has developed some arthritis and it was bothering him during our inclement weather. He prefers to laze away the days now.

We HAVE had quite a bit of rain.
Nary a drop fell prior to the 11th, but it rained enough over the next 20 days to qualify as the 10th wettest October on record.

And wind, too, though this stiff breeze brought sunny skies with it.

As late October set in, leaves rapidly changed color everywhere, including the leaves of this ivy...

...the ones that fell into this pond...

...and leaves of this smokebush plant.

And October was ushered out at last with this gruesome grinner!

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