Yes, there it was again .. Thanksgiving Day!
And yes, as always, so much to be thankful for! Our health, our home, our jobs, our friends, our family .. each other!
We're lucky, and we know it ..

Our usual traditions were observed. We watched the Macy Parade:



While drinking coffee with a BIG piece of apple-cranberry pie!
I don't know why but while I make this every year for thanksgiving and we always love it this one tasted exceptionally delicious this year!

   


Of course we had to see who won the Purina National Dog Show which turned out to be Vito, the first pug ever to win best in this show!

And I'll have to say it again, despite Vito's cuteness, it's so sad to see dogs with such an unnatural and unhealthy anatomy win and get so much publicity.
Short-nosed dogs, also known as brachycephalic dogs, can have a number of health problems such as breathing problems, eye and nose problems, and skin and ear conditions to name just a few.

In Holland it is illegal  to breed dogs in the red zone, where the snout is shorter than one third the length of the skull and they are now working on a law to ban ownership of flat faced dogs and other pets with other 'harmful external characteristics' (folded ears, shortened legs, all cropping) as well.
I agree with their statement: “The message must be clear: purchasing these animals is irresponsible, results in serious harm to welfare, and will soon no longer be allowed.”

Moving on shall we .. more food was consumed:

                                                 

To keep it 'simple' (James' words) I'd bought turkey thighs, which were a quick roast in the oven, and I had boxed stuffing, a pouch of (sweet) mashed potatoes, a package of turkey gravy, a can of cranberries and frozen green beans for the casserole (made with a can of mushroom soup of course).

               

Let me tell you though, it's still quite an undertaking to get everything ready and hot at the same time.
Still not simple enough for me .. next year we go out for dinner! (although I say that every year, but you know ... no leftovers!)

So, Thanksgiving is over and, as we saw at the end of the parade, the 'Big Guy' is back in town once again, and we know what that means ... decorating for Christmas!
I made a start by taking down all the Fall-stuff:

It seems that it gets to be more every year ... funny how that works when you go to the Dollar store and are tempted by all their cute little nick-knacks. I mean, only $1.25, how can you not?
Next year I need a new straw-man for outside because the ground squirrels took the one I had completely apart (for their nest?) and one day they even disappeared under the RV with his whole bottom halve, legs and stand included!

We haven't seen any for a couple of weeks now and when I googled this I found that they actually go underground in late Fall, close off their tunnels and hibernate for the winter.

Well, I say, good riddance! Of course they'll be back in the Spring ..

It's getting a lot colder now, daytime highs are in the mid 40s and the nights are dipping into the high 30s.
While I was working on this blog the other day I heard some knocking on the window in front of me which turned out to be a Red-breasted Sapsucker:

                                                    

He reminded me of a dutch children's song 'Roodborstje tikt tegen 't raam'
It's a short song that's very popular and it tells the story of a little red robin tapping on the window and asking to be let in the house - because he finds it waaay to cold outside!
It sure seemed like he was saying 'let me in, I'm cold', but I doubt it. They're fine here in the NW during the winter.
I bet he was after insects that hide in the ridges of the window frame ...

The days are so much shorter now, only about 10 hours of visible light and the sun starts to set around 4.30 already!

 The light is beautiful around that time ..

                       

                       

One more day and we're in December. Time keeps on flying!

Another rainy week has passed. So far October has had almost 8 inches, at least according to the Salem Weather History site.
That's our rain gauge above when it was filled all the way to the tippity-top on Friday.
It's hard to see but it's completely full!



And that was after I'd emptied it last week in between showers when it was up to 5.5 inches and the week before that when it reached 3.5!
So, according to our gauge and my calculations we're up to 17 inches!

I guess we're somewhere in the middle which means a good foot has fallen. The (upper) pond I look at from the RV has risen to it's max and has started to overflow in the one below.
Fortunately we don't have to worry about flooding!

                             

                            

Although it is normal for October to be a rainy month, the excessive rain of the last week was caused by A so-called 'bomb cyclone', which is a rapidly intensifying extra-tropical cyclone, followed by another 'atmospheric river' like we had earlier this year.
Besides a lot of rain we also had high winds, up to 45 miles/hour, which means all trees are now mostly bare:

                             

Attempting to lighten the mood a little I brought some color into the house by bringing home this small Christmas Cacti from the grocery store.

Apparently these 'Christmas' cacti are actually 'Thanksgiving' cacti, and flowering in November. 
There is indeed a true Christmas-cactus but nowadays they’re not popular with greenhouse growers so you'll almost always and up with the Thanksgiving one.
Best way to keep them apart, besides the different blooming time, are the toothed segments of the Thanksgiving versus the smooth ones of the Christmas one.

My little plant is full of buds, I hope they'll all bloom! One has already started, isn't it spectacular?                                    

                                                      

Due to the weather it was another quiet week, mostly spent indoors, doing a lot of puzzling and reading and I also took some time familiarizing myself with my new phone.
I was so happy to finally be able to download a few apps I always wanted but was never able to download since my old phone didn't have enough space .. or something like that (I'm just so not computer-savvy).

I'm talking about the Merlin ID app, the Map-my-walk app and a plant app, they're in the middle row here:

Despite the rain I went for some of my normal, fairly short walks:

          

Map-my-walk shows for instance how far I walked, how long it took me, my steps and calories used and even the elevation gain.
How cool is that?

And this is the Merlin app:

   

 

Despite the rain it identified quite a lot of birds.
I didn't know we had the Golden-crowned Sparrow around but apparently we do, and now I know, I'll be on the look-out for them!

As you can see on the right it also identified Pine Siskins, which was not that difficult since every now and than we're beseeched by a large flock:

These little exceptionally streaky, small-billed finches flock to thistle or nyjer feeders and other small seeds.
They love to cling to the ends of conifer branches, even upside down, to feed at cones and will do the seem at the fine mesh of feeders:



They're feisty little buggers and you often hear their insistent twitters while quarreling over who gets the best spots on the feeders, even before you see them.

     

I love watching them, they're so entertaining!

The river is always a good spot to see birds and although I totally forgot to turn on my 'app' I came across this Heron the other day.
I actually see him almost every time I go down there but he's very shy and will fly away as soon as he sees me (which is way before I notice him).
This time he let me take his picture:
                                                                
                                                                       

The river is much higher at the moment and very fast flowing but I guess he's confident that he's fast enough to catch something:  

Like I said, it's been a quiet week so other than some food-pics I don't think I have much else to show for.
This was a delicious soup, a curry chicken with lentils.
As usual I'm not sure how I made it .. a little bit of this and a little bit of that .. but wow, soooo good!

                                                                                

And James left me a rather funny note the other day when I went for a walk, before he went to the office:

Since he works from home we often have coffee together these days and although we try not to go overboard with sugar and cookies he obviously wanted some that morning!
'Kookja' is his phonetic attempt to write the dutch word 'koekje' which means 'cookie'.
Close, but no cigar .. but I knew what he meant.

That day we had a small 'koekje' but, as usual, I made something bigger for the weekend:

                                                             

I've been binge-watching reruns of  several years of the 'Holiday Baking Championship' and got inspired to bake a (my first) 'roll'.
A pumpkin-roll (with pecans) to be precise and I was quite happy with the result!

            

Only 6 days to Thanksgiving, can you believe it? Next weekend I'll be decorating for Christmas!

You think it might rain?

I guess they weren't kidding when they predicted rain coming our way last week!
Our new rain gauge measured a whopping 5.5" when I emptied it on Tuesday during the one dry day we had and it's showing another 2.5" as I speak.
Looking at the forecast we're not done for a while yet!

But of course a little rain won't keep me from my walks .. ha! .. I'm not 'made of doll-shit' as they say in Holland. (I know, that's not a very elegant saying but hey, I didn't come up with them.)

Sometimes I had to run for it!
Look at that sky!

The little waterfall I discovered in the river this summer, which looked so pretty ...

            

It is now almost invisible! When the water comes up any higher it will disappear altogether until next summer.
I now realize that that's the reason I never knew it was there. It was completely under water!

              

Not only are the days wetter and cooler but definitely a lot shorter as well, especially with the weather we're having.
Sunset is around 5pm at the moment and when I go out for a little 'stroll around the block' in the late afternoon I have to watch the time to make sure I'm in before dark!

         

         

Despite all the rain these LBBs (Little Brown Birds) thought they needed a bath in between showers.
The pond is still low but it is filling up rapidly. Soon they won't be able to use the shore as a bathtub anymore!

 

They take their bathing serious, it thought they were going to drown themselves!

                                                     

                                                    

 
The feeders are buzzing all day long. It's mainly House Finches at the moment:

               

I found lots and lots of Inky-cap mushrooms down by the river:

                                   

And these funny looking little ones in the meadow next to us. I think they look like fried eggs! 😁

          

The herd of Elks is still hanging around. I think there are more of them every day!                                      

Mating season is almost over and the biggest, strongest bulls have gathered quite the harems!

I only discovered one bull in this herd (laying down in the back) but they are a little far away, even for my zoom, and I can't get a very sharp picture.

                         

 

Lets see, what else ... oh, yeah, I got a new sewing machine!

My old one had given up the ghost, it was a cheap machine I'd bought at a thrift store and it never worked very well. Although James tried to keep it going and did some repairs every now and than it basically was a 'lemon'. Oh well, it happens ..

                                

      

This particular one I'd researched online and is described as reliable and sturdy and although quite pricey ($209) I decided it was probably the last one I'd ever buy and thus worth it.

Cheapskate as I am, I chanced a last look at Facebook's Marketplace to see if I could find a second-hand close-by for less and 'whaddayethink' there was one listed in McMinnville!
It turned out to be a new machine, OK 'new', from 2023 that is, but never used, never taken out of the box even, and for only $100!

                                           

I picked it up on Wednesday when I went grocery-shopping in Mac, and so far I love it!
I tested it and it works and it looks and feels great but I still have to read through the manual to figure out all possibilities, etc. So far, so good though!

On top of that, I got a new phone as well! I've been cursing at my old phone for a while and James finally had enough of it and bought me a new one!
I guess Christmas has arrived early for me!

                          

Nothing fancy really but a step up from my old one, with a much larger memory, which hopefully allows me to finally download a few apps that I'd love to have and which my old phone didn't have enough 'room' for (the Merlin Bird ID, a plant identification app and the Map my walk app, to name a few) and a much better camera which hopefully makes it possible to not always have to lug my (bigger and heavier) camera around.
So far it's been a bear to get everything copied over, installed and secured but we're making progress ... modern technology, not for the faint of heart!

I'll end with a (rather bad) picture of the Beaver (full) Moon rising over our meadow, which was the last of the four consecutive super-moons occurring in 2024:

The Beaver Moon takes its name from early Native American tribes as well as American colonists, according to the Old Farmer's Almanac, when beavers begin sheltering in their lodges after gathering enough food to last the winter.
Fur trappers, the almanac stated, used this time also to hunt beavers for their pelts.