Here's a picture I've been hoping to take for ages but I'm never on this road, with it's stunning rows of maples, at the right time or in the right light or with the least traffic, etc. 
I finally decided to just take a shot, at least there's no traffic, but the light could have been better. 
When the sun hits them just right they're really blazing with color ..  

Any-who .. it's good that I took the shot when I did because when I drove by only a week later it looked like this:
                                        

Just the one little seedling held it's ground .. of course .. it's always the red-heads!

A similar thing happened at the pond in Willamina, although this had to do with the weather. One day it looked like this:

                                   

And a couple of days later:

                                        

Meanwhile, at Stonehenge:

That, of course, is not Stonehenge but it still cracked me up!
And yes, it happened again, back to 'winter' time .. despite nobody really liking, or needing, this to happen anymore. 
Oh well, there's not much to do about it so there we go again ..

It's good and well Fall at the moment. We're having a 'wet one' so far. 
Look at this forecast .. 'got rain'?

                      

So far we've had about 8 inches in the last 2 weeks already!
The ponds are starting to fill up just a bit, and mushrooms are popping up everywhere in the forest:

 

I love these still, grey days when the clouds are hanging low over the hills and the decaying leaves and plants make for an earthy, aromatic smell enhanced by the cooler, moist air .. it all feels a little gloomy and mysterious ...



And look what I came upon earlier this week?
A big herd of Elk!
The lens of my camera was dirty so these pictures are rather fuzzy (what else is new) but they were fairly close on that lower slope of the hill right next to us ..

           

It's a big herd and it looked like there were several bulls!
I haven't heard any 'bugling' or seen any fighting so I think most of the rut is already over and the herds have formed, hierarchy is established and everybody can calm down again.

This tree in the forest along the old logging road looked rather spooky to me with all the Spanish moss hanging from it's branches .. which had to be Halloween-ish enough this year for me since we never made it to the town's 'trick-or-treat going-on.

We don’t get any trick-or-treaters here, rural as we are, but we would have gone to town to watch the kids in their outfits, if it wasn't raining cats and dogs (just like last year) so we stayed home in our nice and dry and warm RV and watch some TV instead ... I know .. we're getting old ..

Dark, cold evenings? Time for some dutch comfort food:

Hutspot! M-m-good!