The Scouler's willow is just outside my bedroom window, and it brightens the whole room in the morning when the sun is on it!

 Marjorie's daughter's boyfriend, Alex, is an avid photographer, so when they come to visit, he and I like to get together for photo walks. It was a gray, damp day, but that only increases the photo ops!

This bush with red berries (sorry, I should know what it is but I'm being lazy) was a great subject. Alex had just bought a wonderful camera and was experimenting with it. It was amazing - read: camera envy!!

 But I still love my little point-and-shoot camera, it lets me take it everywhere, and gives pretty darn good shots!

The Scouler's Willow in my front yard is always one of the last trees to show color, but when it does, it's spectacular! It practically glows when the sun shines on it, but because of it's location near the house and trees, it's hard to get a nice shot of it! But, every year, I try. I love looking up through the leaves to the blue sky, too.

 These are actually from yesterday - today it poured all day, and I just didn't feel like venturing outdoors! Better to sit in a comfy chair, finish up some projects and watch a Harry Potter movie!

But yesterday late afternoon the sun peeked out from under the clouds and lit the tree tops, or highlighted trees back in the woods.

Big-Leaf Maple leaf - pretty big!

Cleaned out the end of the culverts under our driveway - several years' worth of mud and debris. Things should flow smoothly this winter! Within a few days, this will be filled with water . . .

 Apollo and I went out early to enjoy the sun! The ground is completely saturated after yesterday's downpour, and those of the previous days. And, it will continue to be, as there is more rain to come!

 Then I took advantage of the sunny day and went to my friend Cathi's, where she was hosting her annual wreath-making event. Karen holds her completed wreath, standing next to the pile of greens.

Tui wishes she had hands so she could make one, too!

Our table today - I'm very thankful for my family and friends.

Glad you could all join me.

 Ginger and Jon busy in the kitchen.

And yet more rain. The pond has completely filled up: from dry to overflowing in 2 or 3 days. It hasn't filled up the swamp yet,

 but puddles are forming, and with the amount of rain forecast, it will only be another day or so until the swamp fills and begins to flow along the driveway. There has been some serious flooding over on the mainland, too.

 The deer are being lazy - they're using fallen trees for scraping their antlers!

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2011

Rain, rain, more rain. Wind. Rain. Rain. Flooding. Rain.

 Went to see about a job, and there was snow on the ground there - from Saturday! Brave mushrooms ignored it, and marched jauntily along.

This is the house - originally built without a permit, now it's being sold, and they need to obtain a permit before the sale can go through. It's very interesting, with multiple floor and roof levels, so will be a challenge to measure and draw up. We like challenges, don't we?

 Heavy frost last night, but sunny this morning. Someone caught a Golden-Crowned Kinglet - I found him lying in the grass, poor thing! His gold and orange crest is vivid, and that's what caught my eye. He is the smallest native bird we have, except for the hummingbird.

 The willow tree is confused: half of the leaves are green, half yellow, and all covered with frost! The yellow leaves were dropping all morning, and by afternoon the tree was markedly greener. In the photo below, you can see some of the leaves in mid-air, and of course the lawn is carpeted with them!

Apollo had to go to the vet yesterday to have an abscess drained. He looks rather ragged with his shaved cheek, but seems to feel a lot better than he has for a few days. He's been playing with Tookers all morning!

I received my copy of "Doorways & Portals", a Photo Art Journal project from the Yahoo group, http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/photoartjournals/. Catherine Anderson is our creative genius, and she outdid herself with this one!

 The theme was doorways and portals, and she asked us to create a page where the 'doors' of our doorways opened to reveal another photo behind. It was a very fun project, and the results are fantastic.

 Catherine then created a 'box' with a 'door' for the pages. What a treasure!

After the wind yesterday, and heavy rain all night, the sun peeked out at dawn while a light shower came down.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 2011

 First big storm of the season, complete with power outage! Got out all the candles and lamp, and decided it was a good time to have fun with the camera.

It was out about 2 hours, then on again for a while, then off, but by 10:00pm it had come back on for good.

Earlier, the kitties were playing. Front to back: Gertrude, Tookers, Lucius.

A calm (before the storm) partly sunny day, and I stopped at the Freeland Park on my way home from errands. The water was so smooth and clear, from the dock I could see the sea floor. Above, one of the sea anemones was a day-glo green. You can't tell from the photo, but those little pale lines were almost iridescent! The other anemones were different colors, but also had the iridescence glowing.

 Another underwater visitor was a jelly, slowly undulating its way around the end of the dock. It was about 12" across. This time of year, they tend to die off and end up on the beach, but this one was still alive.

  Not so for the blue mussel this crow found and ate!!

So calm and reflective . . .

 Then, I just have to add the fall photos of the birch tree on our driveway as Cory went by for his walk.

 It didn't rain today - cold and some clouds, but I finally got out for a little walk, mostly down the driveway picking up after the winds of the weekend. In the swamp, a mossy log sprouts ferns and willow shoots.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2011

 Gertrude and Tookers are getting along well, now - he is not that much smaller than she is, and they are a match for play-fighting. It's fun to watch - they spent the whole morning together - playing, fighting, grooming and sleeping together.

 We had a big storm roll in today - high winds, and lots of rain at times. Our rain was mostly in the morning, then calm. I went out around 4:00, and the next wave of high winds came along. I was on my way to Coupeville, and decided to go around by Ebey's Landing, and was rewarded with huge breakers, high winds and the setting sun. Bonus - a V of geese fighting the wind!

You can clearly see the front as it moved along.

 And this one really shows the effect of the wind, both on the clouds and the waves.

Exuberance!