November

 

November arrived with some glorious weather.

Just in time for us to host the Cross Country team end of season party.

We had corn hole, spike ball, can jam, and s'mores at the fire pit.  Much to Flopsy's dismay, she was only allowed to supervise the set up, and clean up.

That was the weekend of bonfires.  Four over three days to be exact.

The fall weather kicked off some baking.

Keenan made these beauties from a cookbook Kieran gave him for his birthday.

Toffee chocolate chip shortbread cookies.

Absolutely delicious.

Did I mention the weather was beautiful?

And cooler temp's mean more in the slow cooker too.

This pork shoulder got rubbed with a spice blend I made & it was perfection.

Poor Hobbes got an unplanned visit to our vet after having a muscle spasm with his leg one morning.

Big fella dealing with some arthritis & we're trying a new medicine for him.

Think he was more irritated with having to ride in my car.

He really does not like my car.

Our dry sunny weather continued all month.

Rain would be welcomed but the hounds have been happy soaking up the sun.

Over in Northern England, they've had several tropical storms.

This was along the Western portion of our Hadrian's Wall hike we did in August.

The road is completely underwater, with a couple brave hikers up on the berm.

Not a pleasant day to be on the trail.

Local craft shows have been in full swing.

At a large one, I spotted these at a booth & shared the picture with Kevin and the boys.

We had sooooo many gumball trees at our old house & always joked about what to do with the gumballs.

Christmas advertising has been in full swing......

thanks for the reminder Lifetouch.

Yes, a lot has changed.

The local trails have been lovely to enjoy.

This day I met loads of birds & squirrels, deer, and a huge hawk on the trail.

But my favorite was meeting a sweet wee Scottie named Angus.

Oh I miss our Scotties.

Thanksgiving week kicked off with this:

Yup, his first college visit.

We'll do a couple more in the spring, with the hope that we can space them out more than we did with Kieran.

And speaking of, it was great to watch him get back home.

We decided to stay put this year for Thanksgiving.

Kieran wanted to come home, and did not want to spend his whole break driving back & forth.

Made for a quieter holiday & missed seeing family, but was wonderful to spend time together.

All three boys ran the Gobbler 5k Thanksgiving morning & I was the holder of all extra things for them while they ran.

Last week I closed out the month with some friends at a pottery studio.

We were painting ceramic Christmas trees.

We were told this color will fire a deep forest green.......

I'll find out in a few more days.