100% Chance of Rain

Today's forecast: 100 % chance of showers.

Rain.

Like we need it!

Knowing that today was going to be a rainy day,

I spent yesterday squeezing every last bit of sunshine and blue skies into my psyche.

I worked in the garden.

I hung out laundry.

I cleaned pastures.

I took the dogs for a walk.

We are in the midst of our fall foliage time,

but the colors are not what they usually are.

They are lovely...

but not breathtaking.

I suppose it has something to do with all the rain we received in the past two months.

Many of our trees skipped the color change...

their leaves ending up brown, dry and crunchy.

Others lost their leaves altogether in a couple of wind storms.

It won't be long until the color is gone

and my world will be plunged into that monochromatic brown/grey scheme.

So, while I had the time,

I took in as much of the color as I could.

I walked through the woods...

dry leaves crunching beneath my feet.

Oakley, Sam, and Maddie ran ahead of me down the trail

with their nostrils to the ground,

following the scent of all sorts of wildlife.

A flock of grackles gathered in a patch of nearby hemlock trees,

their loud, repetitive "readle-eek" robbing the woods of its quietude.

I had hoped to catch a few of our white tailed deer herd with my camera.

Walking down the path I felt their eyes upon me

from their safe, thickety hideouts.

Sadly, the only wildlife I encountered were 6 of these lovelies,

circling above

and finally settling to rest in the top of a dead tree...

a rather Halloween-esque picture, don't you think?

A face only a mother could love!  

We eventually reached the camp and rested on the front porch for a while,

surveying the pile of wood that Hubbs had transported to the camp.

Amidst all of that hard, dark woody substance

was this delicate, ruffly fungus...

further evidence of the persistent precipitation.

While we were off galavanting in the woods,

our work crew was busy doing this.....

and by the time the afternoon was over,

they had placed almost all of the poles around the barn's perimeter.

With today's rain, however, construction comes to a grinding halt.