Halloween, a Retrospective

 Halloween Day here was beautiful with sunshine and relative warmth. Our Sunday Ren Yuan group was able to be outdoors for our weekly practice. It is fun to have a pod of friends to meet with every Sunday, all vaccinated, all masked when appropriate... and all 6 feet apart. And this time back outdoors! 

Halloween is also my birthday... and the day I bought Mr. Smith, my beloved Morgan gelding, 26 years ago... on the day I turned 50. My plan was to groom him and the mares with help from my friend Mary, but we ended up spending the time hiking through the woods and birdwatching instead. We did say hi to the horses in the field as we went through. Jessie Anne and Nightingale came up for love and attention. Mr. Smith kept on grazing. It was a good day with happy birthday phone calls from friends and family.

The next day, I took down all my Halloween decorations. But I had taken photos earlier, so here they are: witches and bats and ghosts galore...

a wee ghost by the front door and a cat on the path

well, our ground *has* been soft and muddy since the rains finally began but not *that* soft.  I think this witch must have found a rabbit hole to fall into

the smallest bat here would not come off the wall so may fly there forever

there are 3 bats on this side of the house but you'll have to look close to see the third...

overseeing all was the Halloween llama

And now it is November... and raining. We are hoping to find two good weather days to do our first fall and winter raptor routes plus my monthly beached bird survey. It will be challenging. But we need the rain...