I can't believe it's the end of October already and Halloween is just around the corner!
So far Fall has been a quite mild affair this year, it's been mostly dry and although temps have cooled down considerably it hasn't been too cold ... yet.
We did have a few 'almost-frosty' mornings last week though and the sunrises were often quite spectacular!

                  

                 

The colors are strong when there's a cold, clear sky but I think they're even better when there are some clouds for some extra 'drama'!

                     

And after the sun has emerged for real, the lingering fog over the meadows sets everything in a beautiful golden and orange glow ..

                     

                     
We sure live in a beautiful spot!

My niece had mentioned on the family-Whatsapp that the 'Oliebollen kraam' had once again arrived in town (which is Den Helder in the Netherlands btw)!
It usually arrives at the end of September and stays in town until Old Year's and I would be one of the first to get some! I love oliebollen!

But of course there's no such thing here in the States, although donuts or funnel cake come close, so what to do?
Yup, you bake them yourselves!

We bake them every year but always on New Year's day only, but this year I just couldn't wait!
At least we halved the batch this time, so we 'only' had 12 of them, but boy-oh-boy were they good!

                                                                 

                                                                                             Yummm!

Of course this doesn't mean that we're skipping them on New Year's.
Ha! No sirree!

Any-who. Since these delicious balls aren't necessarily without about a couple of hundred calories each we needed a good, stiff walk to offset some of the damage.

We decided to go back to the Baskett Slough, the National Wildlife Refuge on the way to Dallas where we stopped earlier this summer at their viewing platform and information kiosk.

This time we actually drove into the refuge until about midway where you can park and take one of the trailheads that take you through several areas of the reserve.

                                               

Since at the moment more and more migrating birds, especially geese, are arriving each day they've closed the trails around the lakes for the season but there are still enough accessible which make for a nice, moderate hike.

From the parking lot we first climbed the small hill, Mt Baldy ..

  

At the top of which (125 m) you find this viewing area ..




Which gives you a nice 350 degree overview of the surrounding area ..

 

You had a peek of the lake in the distance but it was too far to see if there were any geese present and even the zoom on my camera didn't show any.
James thought he heard them but of course me being deaf I didn't hear a thing ..

    

      

We proceeded our way following the trail up and down through a beautiful oak forest and  after a while it looped back to the parking lot.
Although most people that go here rave about all the wildlife they see, we didn't come across any at all.
Of course it was the middle of the afternoon which is usually not the best time but still, it was a little disappointing

And since all that hiking had made us thirsty (nice excuse) we decided to stop  at the Salt Creek Cider House on our way back.

         

     

Again, this was one of those places we'd passed numerous times and always wanted to go but never went .. so far.
I'd read on Facebook that they recently harvested their new crop of apples so it seemed a good time to pay them a visit.

They have a pretty little set-up, with a pond and some ducks and the apple orchard that you can walk through.
Inside you can see the vats of cider merrily fermenting away ..

               

We decided to try a flight of 4 different ciders and since the weather was decent we went outside to sit at one of the picnic benches :

                                   
                                                                         

             

These were 'hard' ciders and I have to say .. I'm not a fan.
I just find them too harsh, too dry and than all those bubbles .. I just end up with a sour stomach.

In comparison we thought these were at least much, much better than when we took my sister and her partner to another cider mill this spring where all four of us thought their cider was really absolutely awful but no .. I guess we just don't like (hard) cider!

OK. Last, but not least:

I did it! I voted! For the first time since I became a citizen!

                 

So whatever happens .. I did my best!