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.

 

This gloomy picture about sums up how we felt on Wednesday morning ..
Yes, this happened ... we lost .. unbelievable!!!

                                            

                                            America, what have you done?

Common believe is that failure to address the pressing economic concerns and the deepening divide in America helped pave the way for Trump's second term.

Even if this were true, it beats me how anybody thinks Donald trump can, and more importantly will, do any better.
Personally I don't believe a single thing that comes out of his mouth but hey .. apparently more than half of America does, so lets see what that will look like for them ..

Actually I'm with Heather Richardson Cox who says in her blog of November 6, the day after the election: 
"But my own conclusion is that both of those things were amplified by the flood of disinformation that has plagued the U.S. for years now".
I think she nailed it on the head! Disinformation. What, or who, to believe and to trust?

Thank heavens he 'only' has 4 (more) years! In the meantime:

Fight! Resist!

We had plans to go out for coffee that morning, hopefully 'to celebrate', and decided to go anyways ... 'to drown or sorrow' ..
Nothing like a good cup of coffee and a huge slice of pie to soften the blow:

                                                        

We had to go to Dallas to get some, about a 20 minute drive, but at least it was good!
It's very hard to find a decent, cozy coffee-shop that serves cakes or different pastries other than the usual boring donuts, cupcakes, cinnamon rolls and scones in America.
It's one thing I really miss about Europe .. all those wonderful bakeries .. and pastries.

After all that drama I tried to spend much of the rest of the week out in nature, taking long walks, which usually restores my balance and makes sense of things again, but I have to say it was a hard sell this time ..

Not that mother nature didn't try her best, of course she was beautiful as ever!

 


Really pulling out all the stops by showing me this peaceful, sleepy, calming herd of Elk at the lower slopes of the hills towards Sheridan:

 

 

It's always such a thrill to see them!

I still discover new mushrooms almost every day.
This tree was covered with these pretty dainty ones on their tall stems. I don't know what they are but I hope they're beneficial and don't harm the tree.

  

     

And this bulky one I found in the meadow which I think is a Bolete: 

                        

It can be identified thanks to a unique cap. On the underside of the cap there is usually a spongy surface with pores, instead of the gills typical of mushrooms.

 

Some are edible, but most are not very good. I'll pass ..

I also find lots and lots of these Oak galls which are abnormal plant growths found on foliage and twigs that are produced by small oak gall wasps.
Inside the galls are the eggs and larvae of the insects, which by the way are not harmful to humans.
Some of them are really pretty.

                                         

 
When I was not outside I binge-watched the Holiday Baking Championships (reruns for years past) or one of the sugar-sweet Hallmark-movies on the 'telly'.
And I finished this Halloween puzzle. A 'tricky' one!

I baked some dutch cookies called speculaasjes. I didn't have a mold but they taste the same. Which is .. delicious!
I always bring back the special 'speculaas' spices you need for these from when I visit Holland. The ones I brought last time were from a different brand and OMG they're soooo good! Much better than my old ones.

I cooked some 'comfort' food for dinner as well, another dutch dish called 'boerenkool met worst' with a 'kuiltje jus' (little gravy pit? Haha!).
Mm-Mm-good!

So, nature, some sappy TV, puzzles and food ... anything to take my mind of what happened and which one of the bloggers I follow (Ellen) described as:
'"A new dark age is about to befall this country. The people have voted for a repressive, racist, misogynistic regime that is all about vengeance and absolute power.

Well, America, you got what you wished for, either through action or inaction. You have brought on yourself a world of hurt. You will receive your just desserts and I hope you choke on it."

Let's end with a peaceful scene out of my window in the late afternoon:

The little oak-grove next to us in the morning fog ..

I know, enough already with those fall pictures, but I can't help myself, it's so beautiful out there!
The soft light and those old, gnarly trees .. picture perfect ..

                        

We had a lot of rain this last week. I didn't empty the rain gauge for 10 days or so so it looks a bit overly dramatic but yes, we had a good amount lately ..

                                                         

I had to plan my walks carefully if I didn't want to get soaked, although not forgetting to bring an umbrella always helps of course, but I managed to go out every day.
How I love the smell of the damp soil and wet leaves, the gloomy, cloudy skies and the fresh cool air!

                                                

While out on one such mornings I came across what I thought was just the one deer, but it turned out to be a little family of three, and although I stood in the middle of the path only a few hundred yards away they didn't notice me ... 

While I was standing stock-still taking pictures this little Squirrel showed up. He definitely saw me and thought I was very interesting.
As soon as I swung the camera in his direction he skedaddled though ... oh well, what's another blurry picture:

                                    

And how about all these mushrooms popping up everywhere all of a sudden?
Amazing what a little rain will do!

                                                        

 

As usual time is slipping through my fingers and Halloween has already been and gone!

The town of Willamina organized a Trunk-or-treat:

                                                        

And despite the at times really pouring rain, a lot of children showed up.
There's not much that could happen for a kid to give up free candy I guess!

We debated to go out and snap some pictures but we chickened out and stayed warm and dry in our cozy home.

All these pics I stole from the Willamina city Facebook-site.
Some people go all out these days in decorating their houses, almost like they do at Christmas, complete with light and sound shows!

 

I guess that was about it for this week. Tonight we get an extra hour sleep which is always a bit of an adjustment.
As I mentioned before, I'm not a fan of daylight-savings-time.
Being an early riser I love the extra light in the morning, and liking the grey days I love the early darkness in the evenings.
I hope every year they'll leave it at 'wintertime', they do talk about it almost every year, but it never seems to gather enough steam to actually go through ...

I agree .. and leave it at 'normal time' please, thank you very much!