October's End

Here we are at the end of October and heading fast into winter.   This year has been just a blur in many ways.   Seems like it went far too fast.   It's the first year as far back as I can remember that I didn't do much decorating for Halloween/Samhain.  I couldn't get into it somehow.   And the first time in ages that I'm not having a party.   It's been a funny sort of year.   I did paint some twigs, put them in a pot and strung purple lights around it.  I thought it looked pretty.   And a little bit of orange on an end table.

This past week I've had a bear around.   I got up one morning and saw that a full bag of garbage had been hauled off the deck and ripped to pieces.  While picking that mess up the thought that it could have been a bear made me look at the bird feeders and the two block suet feeder was gone.  He had to climb the tree to reach a branch and pull.   Only the wire that was attached to it was left hanging.   Of course I should have know there was a bear about because a few days before that one of the feeders that had been high up on a post was flat on the ground, post and all.   We'd had a lot of wind so I just figured it had blown over although the post was broken off at the bottom.   Needless to say I've been cautious when outside.   Two days ago I had some stuff to bring up by the woods to the bonfire pile and spied the lost feeder over by the woods.  The suet was gone of course and the feeder was smashed to bits.  It was a fairly expensive one too that was made so only the small birds could get into it.   And was made with heavy wire.

This is what's left of it.   Only good as a conversation piece now.

My oldest cat, little Freya, is no longer with me.   She had lost a lot of weight, was only skin and bone really and was hardly eating.   I can't bear this having to make a decision to have an animal euthanized.  It broke my heart.   Only the three boys left now.

Well, that's about it for now.