Fall Appreciation

We're home from our California/Utah trip. We had a wonderful time. Tomorrow, (or soon after,) I'll give you the scoop, along with some pictures. This week, we've been resting and recuperating while watching the leaves out our windows put on a show. We planted these maple and oak trees, in our backyard, last year after they'd already lost their leaves, so their fall colors were yet a mystery. I couldn't resist catching the sun setting on them tonight. (Click on pic for a nice, large image.)

Today, for several minutes, we had several kinds of birds in our backyard all at once. A couple of Magpies (they're always hanging out,) a young Starling, a couple of young Robins, a few Northern Flickers, several Chickadees, and another woodpecker that may have been a Nuttall Woodpecker -black and white with spotted "underpants" and a little red on the back of his head. He was gorgeous. The Chickadees and Northern Flickers only visit rarely, but we've never been visited by a Nuttell. I wish he could have stayed longer, but he flew away first and then the whole bunch of them disappeared a couple of minutes later. Not one bird stuck around (even the Magpies!)

I love the fact that nature, before the death of winter, is full of surprises and extra glow. It's exactly how I want to be before I die and travel to a new place.