Yes, finally, there it is! Fall!
The nights are rather on the cool side with temps in the high 40s and low 50s and the days, especially in the mornings and evenings, a lot cooler as well with temps around 65F.
I feel like a cloud has lifted for me now I know the heat is on it's way out, and especially in nature everything is so much clearer and full of energy. 
There's an urgency of gathering food, filling up before winter, and getting ready to migrate.
We've seen, and heard, the first geese flying over on their way south!

MI enjoyed my weekly walk around the pond in Willamina where it was wonderfully quiet and calm ...

Colorful leaves are falling and I feel the urge to shuffle them like Snoopy 
and see them flying ...

Tomorrow we're leaving for our little trip 'up North', into Washington State.
We're going to be at Mt Rainier National Park for 2.5 days, followed by 2.5 days in Leavenworth, making a rough loop coming and going:

                   

The 369-sq.-mile park surrounds 14,410 feet Mt. rainier which is the highest peak in Washington state.
It's an active volcano, and the most glaciated peak in the contiguous U.S.A., spawning five major rivers.
We are hoping to see the mountain, which is not always the case, since it is often wrapped in clouds, depending on the weather.
The forecast is fairly good, cool and partly cloudy, except for Tuesday when they predict showers with about 0.25" of rain. We'll see ...

Leavenworth is a charming (so they say) Bavarian-themed mountain town nestled in the Cascade Range of Washington State.
Apparently it is quite touristy with lots of German restaurants and shops, and some quirky attractions like a nutcracker museum and a reindeer farm!
The summer and weekends (and during Christmas) are very busy but since we're there on Wednesday through Friday we hope it will be OK.

I hope I will be able to make some nice pictures which is getting harder and harder with the state my poor, old camera is in at the moment: 

      

A couple of months ago I lost the front ring, which somewhat protects the lens, and 2 days ago the screw with which the camera is attached to the belt unscrewed by itself and it dropped on the rocky path I was on, cracking the LCD screen.
I think it'll still make OK pictures but I also think it's about time to look for a new one!

Today we've been preparing for the trip. 
We washed the car, since the dusty dirt-roads that James is often on makes it look quite bad:

                                                  

And I did some laundry and somehow managed to get all clothes and toiletries in the suitcase and some snacks and drinks and other miscellaneous stuff in another small bag ..

I also finished another Wysocki puzzle, one I bought at the local thrift-shop.
You never know if all the pieces will be there when you buy puzzles second-hand but fortunately these were all accounted for.

And I started a new one. I make this one almost every year at the start of Fall. 
It has nice fall colors and lots and lots of pumpkins ... perfect to get in the (Fall) mood.
Not that I need that .. I'm fully in it of course! 

                                  

All the decorations are up! Hey, It's Fall Y'all!

Fall is in the air! 
The nights are definitely on the cool side now, mostly in the 50s and we had a 49 already, and the mornings can be a little foggy and dewy. The sun comes out most afternoons though and I still had to turn on the AC twice this week. But it's sure is changing!

Fall colors are more and more visible, as seen on my morning walks in the neighborhood:

                                    

                                    

I noticed a few more (tiny) 'shrooms and the poison-oak in the oak trees have turned  a beautiful red:

 

      

Still, it has been warm enough to have our morning cup of coffee outside, albeit on the sunny side of the RV now, (the shady pond-side is now too damp and cool in the morning) where it is the perfect temperature under the umbrella. 

            

                                       

That cheeky squirrel I talked about last week, that had taken possession of one of our lawn chairs, now tried to get to the bird-feeders a couple of days ago:

 

              
    
Climbing up wasn't really a problem for him (her?) but from there he couldn't reach the ports in the feeders so he had to take defeat and slowly let himself slide down the pole again ... I wonder what he'll think of next?

                                       

The replacement part for the leaking gas-regulator came in, so James took care of swapping them out: 

 

 

  
With Fall around the corner (as in tomorrow!) it will be good to have that repaired!

                

Yesterdays 'Saturday-soup-of-the-week' was a Corn Chowder. 
I had some corn-on-the-cob in the shed that I forgot about, which was about 10 days old ... not so good straight-of-the-cob anymore but still perfect for soup!

And so it went:

"Und noow, vee makin' ze deeleecioous coorn choowder! Vee take-a ze coorny-coorn und vee tross it in ze pot-a! "Børk! Børk! Børk!" 😁

         

                                                                            

                                         

                                   Together with some corn muffins, it was very good!
                                     Another winner!

                                                

So yes, tomorrow it will be Fall! Yes! Finally! 
(Well, officially it will be the 22nd at 5.05 pm here in the Pacific North-West, but who's counting? Me, me, me!)

That reminds me, I'm off to go and gather all my decorations, and see if I have some apple-cider somewhere. 

Yahoo! Can you tell I'm exited?!

                                                           

 

Only one more week to Fall, yahoo!
Temperatures are going up and down as if not be able to decide what season they're supposed to be in.. We've had a few 85F days followed by some 65s and yes, another day of rain!
This was the look from my desk where the water came poring down the awning ..

                          

Shrubs and trees are showing seeds and berries, like these dry winged pods of the Ash trees (samaras or "ash keys") and the rose-hips of the wild Nootka roses on the right ...  
                                    

       


     
I've been collecting some of the apples and pears that have fallen down the trees here on the property. 

              

The pears are a little bruised and the apples a bit wormy but good enough for smoothies and applesauce.

                                    

   

I got a little better shot of the little fan I saw last week. This time it's mother was there as well but she jumped into the trees before I got get her in the shot. 

I'm very happy to know that she's alive and that this little one is not wandering around all by itself!
There have been a few cougar, bear and bobcat sightings in the forest behind us lately ...

Sitting at my desk I have a view, besides the pond of course, at the little patio at the back of the RV as well. 
I often see the ground squirrels busily squirreling away, looking for seeds and whatnot but when I looked closely I saw this little guy who had climbed up one of the chairs where he enjoyed a great view of his surroundings ...

                                                               

He must have sat there for 5 minutes at least, lording over the rest of them .. or maybe being the look-out .. 

James had some repair-work to do today. The macerator, which chops our solid waste so it can flow through the pipes, had some problems and didn't move anything forward anymore.
Of course this meant that the (grey-water) tanks were overflowing ... which stinks something terrible!

   

Fortunately we always have a back-up one available so after taking the old one of he installed the new one and thank-goodness everything was re-solved in less than an hour.
Great job hon'!

But of course that was not all, these things always happen all at the same time, we'd smelled propane gas outside the RV yesterday, so James had turned it off until he could look at it.

              

It turned out to be the gas regulator which was leaking gas:

                                         

It can not be taken apart so we have to replace the whole thing. Oh well, it 'only' lasted 26 years, so I guess it could be worse.

So, two problems resolved ... time for a nice cup of Joe and some cake!

Just as well that I'd baked Shirley's (James' mum's) Blueberry Buckle yesterday:

This recipe calls for Grisco, which I never use, but I remembered I still had a tub in the pantry so I thought I was good. 
Well, it turned out that it was a tad expired ... how does 8 years sound?
Now, lard has a long life but this was too much even for grease and I had to throw it out. But, by some miracle, I discovered a small bar in the fridge!
Expired as well, but only 2 years and unopened, and after thorough inspection it appeared in perfect shape. Phew, saved!
Second problem, I only had 1 cup of all-purpose flour and needed two so I used 1 cup of bread flour instead. 

This is how a lot of my cooking and baking goes ... but guess what? It came out great. Also as usual!

                                         

Black-capped Chickadee

Since they forecasted rain for a couple of days I made sure to have all my outdoor tasks done and my longer walks in before it arrived on Wednesday.

On my walk into the forest on the logging-road I finally managed to get a shot of the above chickadee! 
They're always around but they're so busy, always in motion which makes it hard to get a decent picture.
And although they're not rare, and I have seen them before, they never show up at my feeder over here so I was tickled pink with this shot. It's the small things ...

And than on Wednesday, right on cue, the rain arrived.
Besides Saturday, when the weather-gods were nice to James and kept it dry so he could golf, it rained every day, and at times pretty heavy!
As of me writing this on Sunday afternoon, we've had almost 3.5 inches!

                                                                                

We still had some drizzle this morning but it has been dry since about noon and I chanced a little walk to get some fresh air.
The slugs and snails were out in force. 
I liked this one with that red stripe on his little house and the slightly reddish color of its body. 
So color-coordinated!

The Queen Ann's lace flowers have all gone to seed now and have turned into a nice rusty fall color:

Some of my vegetables are only now reaching their full height like this huge mass of Basil (on the left) and a wild tomato which I definitely haven't planted there in the tub on the right, but I take it!

             

I hope to make that Basil into some nice pesto!

Next up for the weekly Soup-Saturday routine was a (dried) Black Bean with carrots, onion, garlic, some spices and (plant-based) ground 'beef':

I made it in 30 minutes in the Instant pot and smoothed 2 cups of it with a hand-held blender.  
Served with a little yogurt and avocado, it was delicious!

And here's something exiting: maps, notebook, computer searching ...

Yes, we're planning a little (5 day) get-away at the end of this month!
We're thinking somewhere north, like the Mt Rainier State Park and maybe a little further up to Leavenworth, a little 'Bavarian' town in NW Washington.

It will probably be a little early for Fall colors but hopefully we'll see some. 

I'm looking forward to it, we're due for some R&R!