The end of October

I'm just documenting the end of October 2015. Today isn't the last day, but I'm going to be very busy tomorrow. These are some photos I've taken since last Saturday. The first one was the view out the back gate last weekend. A lot of these golden and reddish leaves have fallen now, because we've had some rain and wind over the past few days.

Below is the vegetable garden as it looked this week, with collard greens, nasturtium and rhubarb leaves, and fading squash plants — not to mention the winter squashes themselves, which are "maturing" at this stage. Some of the greens I planted under the cold frame, on a small plot of freshly tilled ground, have come up now.

Here's Callie in one of her favorite places in the world she knows. The dog really enjoys walking around the edges of the vineyard, and into the woods. She's always on the lookout for a deer or a hare. A couple of days ago, near here, she chased some black beast that was either a very big domestic cat or a small badger. It all happened so fast that I couldn't be sure. All I saw was a black blur and a bushy tail.

Around the house and yard, the Jerusalem artichoke flowers that blossomed in September are fading fast and I'm not sure there are really any left, even though we haven't yet had frost or a freeze. I kind of liked the look of the one below, which I also stylized some in Photoshop to disguise the photo's blurriness.

One of the difficulties of taking photographs at this time of year is that the light is dim when I go out for my morning or afternoon walk. The images are not crisp. That's especially true when the weather is foggy or overcast. During the middle of the day, when there's better light, I'm busy in the kitchen, so I don't often go outdoors.

In the photo above, you can just barely see our house and a neighbor's out across this part of the vineyard. Pretty soon the fields of vines, leafless, will take on their skeletal look for the winter, and the pruning will start.