Oh my goodness, isn't she the cutest? At least, I think it's a she ..
'She''s an Eastern Fox Squirrel and unfortunately, despite being so darn cute, they are a nonnative invasive species (brought over from the east-coast) and rather considered a threat to native squirrel populations.
They aggressively compete with native squirrels for food and nesting habitat, they require far less territory to persist, and they can spread disease to native populations.
Oh well .. I think they're gorgeous (I guess that's not the problem though) and I love to see them.
So, when they showed up this week and started to eye my bird feeders ..

          

I gave them their own ..

      

It took a while, but they finally figured out how to lift the roof to get to the mother-load!

Adorable!

OK, what's next .. oh yeah, 'Sinterklaas-avond' which we celebrated with the usual baking of 'speculaas,', watching some special dutch television episodes of the 'Sinterklaas journaal' and a nice hearty meal of peasoup.

Some traditions will never change ...

And now that feast is officially over, we've completely immersed ourselves in this  "♬ most wonderful time of the year ♫" .. Christmas!
I'd already hung the wreath, lights and garlands and now the tree is also up:

It took some doing since the lights turned out to be kaput and I had to take all 100 of them out. Easier said than done because the cord for each light was wrapped three times around it's branch .. $#@!^&%!
Oh well, it's done, nothing that a nice hot mug of eggnog couldn't fix, and the new (LED this time) lights are pretty as can be ..

Time to write some Christmas cards! I don't send many 'real ones' anymore but still like to do some, and a few need to go 'over-sees' so I better get them on their way early (especially now with all the Covid-delays).

My 'fall' puzzle is done once again ..

And I already made a start with my 'crazy elf puzzle I got from my mom, because I realized I have quite a few winter/Christmas puzzles, which I like to make in 'the right' season7 .. I need more hours in the day!

                        

Remember this little guy? It's the Wooly Bear caterpillar which have a reputation for being able to forecast the coming winter weather. If their rusty band is wide, then it will be a mild winter. The more black there is, the more severe the winter.

I guess this one we saw somewhere in October might just have a smidgen more black than brown .. an in-between-winter?
Apparently due to 'La Nina', a weather pattern we're apparently in right now, the surface of the Pacific ocean is much colder than normal at the moment which could cause a colder and more snowy winter!
Already the snow levels in the mountains are coming down right now, all the passes have snow, Mt Hood got a few feet (!) and our forecast for next week looks like this:

                                               

See those 'snow-showers' for the 15th?! Bring it on! Dare I hope for a white Christmas?

It's rather cold already right now, with temperatures around 38-42F so I've started to make some of our winter-favorites .. 'Boerenkool met worst' (farmers cabbage with smoked sausage) anyone?