And once again it's September! Yeah! Probably my most favorite time of the year, since it means it's going to be cooler and ... Fall, you guessed it!
It depends a little on where we are at this time of the year of course, and my hopes were set high this year since we're in Oregon, but of course they're having about the warmest summer on record, and it doesn't look like it's ending anytime soon either!
Just my luck .. oh well ..

Nature is starting to work towards the end of the season though, regardless of the temperatures, and I have to say the nights are getting a little cooler lately ..

 

The sunflowers seeds are ripening and the finches are busy harvesting, trying to fatten up as much as they can ..

Out of my 'office window' I noticed this White-breasted Nuthatch picking it's way down the tree-trunk, snatching up as many little bugs as he can find in the meantime.
 

I have seen his cousin, the Red-breasted, in the same tree too, but haven't been able to get him in front of my camera yet.
Funny fact about these two: the white-breasted goes (mainly) only heads-down the tree, while the red-breasted goes both ways!

             

I'm so done with this never-ending hot summer, this whole week will still be in the high 80s and even low 90s!) so I'm trying my hardest to find some fall on my walks.
Fortunately, most days I'm coming back with at least a little 'sighting', like this Maple which is loaded with winged seeds or 'keys' as they're called.

                     

Remember letting them 'fly' when we were young?

Most of our neighbors have apple or pear trees in their yards and it pains me to see that none of them are being harvested, they're just letting them fall and rot ..

Same for these beautiful blue plums .. such a shame!

                                                                          

Although the grass is not growing anymore due to the drought, some of the hardier weeds are still hanging in there and James decided to give the orchard another mow at the end of the day:

Which is not really a chore of course. Who doesn't like to putz around on his little John Deer?

A little more of a chore would have been to have to clean the carpets in the RV, the truck and the car.
But it so happened that Doug wanted to sell his big truck, and wanted to hire a carpet-cleaner for the job, so we split the cost for one coming out to do the lot!

He did our chairs as well ..

It was nice to finally have all of it cleaned, we'd been talking about it already for a while but never gotten to it .. so far.

OK, that will be all for this week. It's not much, but it's actually nice to finally not have too much happening, we had enough of that (I'm talking about not so good stuff) to last us for a while ..
Time to make dinner. I picked the last of the zucchini and squash and am making 'Maudeens' stew with it. It's a recipe from one of our neighbors from when we were still living in Skyforest, and I make it on a regular base.
Skyforest, boy, that's a while ago ..

Maudeen's stew (Squash, zucchini, onion, potato, tomatoes, Italian sausage and lots of basil)