Pretty, Happy, Funny, Real: Aaaaaah-ctober Edition

~Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life~ Every Thursday at Like Mother Like Daughter

We've been doing our darnedest to squeeze every last drop of Autumny goodness out of this glorious first week of October, the results of which I shall chronicle here for posterity.

Pretty

On Monday, Daria and I made our annual sojourn into the woods across the street.  We are blessed to live across from a huge--tract of land (Holy Grail, anyone?) that is part of the borough's Green Acres program.  Meaning it's protected and will never be developed.  We love marking the change of the seasons by those woods.  And each year, about this time, we go trekking in there and gather up armfuls of fallen branches to make into all manner of Autumn/Halloween decorations (photos to follow--hopefully).

Pretty

I don't know what plant this is, but we were thought these seeds looked like tiny hanging albino bats!

Pretty?

I suppose this can't really qualify as "pretty," strictly speaking, but it's certainly very cool.  I'm calling this the Devil Tree.  Daria may attempt to carve this face into her jack-o-lantern this year.  I hope she does.

Pretty/Happy

Lobelia and Sweet Pea

 No such controversy over the quality of this photo's beauty.  Lobelia brought my nephew and niece over for the day earlier this week.  And, by the way, she has just joined up with PHFR for the first time this week, have you seen her?  She's just getting started, but I hope she gets around to posting photos of her amazing cooking and crafting creations!  She's a true artist and everything she touches turns out to be glorious!  I'm so excited to have a real-life sister joining in!

Happy

We finally had a night cool enough for sitting around a fire in the backyard.  It hasn't been cold enough yet to build one in the wood stove indoors (well, we did cheat one night and made one for about half an hour, but we really were jumping the gun a bit), but it was wonderful to sit out under the oaks, sipping wine and gazing into the flames.

Happy

I know this shot is dark (I took it next to the fire), but if you look at it at night, and maybe with the lights off, while squinting really hard, you can see it's Man-Cub with faithful (if stinky) Nutmeg by his side.  A boy and his dog, warming themselves by the fire...it's timeless.

Happy

This is a different kind of happy.  Redheaded Snippet has been having quite an exciting season this year.  This is a shot I snapped at one of her games this week.  Our girls beat their rivals in a shut-out game and Snippet scored two of the four goals.  Here she is answering a few questions for a reporter from the local paper after the game.

Happy/Funny

Sweet Pea again.  Lobelia brought apples they had picked last week so we could make an apple crisp for dessert and Sweet Pea couldn't keep her wee hands off of them.  She has only one tooth peeking through on the bottom so every time she tried to gnaw on an apple we could hear her gums squeaking on it!  This kept her happy for quite some time!  Until we had to take the apple from her to peel it...

Funny/Real

Finally, who can tell me what last night's dinner entree was?  Anyone?  I'll give you a hint: it begins with an "E" (and, no, it's not Enchiladas).  The kids were skeptical about it, but everyone liked it and had seconds and there was only one serving left for lunch today.  Mmm-mmm...