A gorgeous fall day - 65 and sunny!

We're doing various things, some new and some are normal fall gardening activities.
The new thing is our water feature - which looks like a bunch of jumbled rocks from this vantage point but is coming along quickly. A water flow test is scheduled for tomorrow - should be exciting!
The normal things are cleaning out the raised bed gardens and adding new soil and fertilizer, then planting garlic for it's over winter sleep and arugula for late fall and winter salads!

The three D's - Diana, Doug and Dusty - plot the next move in the water feature building.

New garlic bed and garden supervisor Diana!

Sharp-shinned

This guy posed for a shot and then took off and caught a sparrow on the wing for dinner. On his way home a kestrel attempted to take his prey away!!  Fascinating, this bird kingdom.

Rain spotted beauty

Morning glory growing just above the herb garden have flowered and are so deliciously gorgeous - especially with rain drops on them.

Raptor Day!

I was washing the back deck and Mike Smith comes around the corner of the house and asks me if I want to photograph some raptors while he releases them!  He had two Kestrels, a juvenile red-tailed hawk and two Barn Owls with him - so we had a wonderful time learning about the birds from Mike and then photographing them.  Here's some shots for you!

Moonrise over the Oquirrhs

Once again we had a front-door seat for the moonrise over the Oquirrhs tonight and tried to make the best of it.  Here's a couple of my favorite shots.
P.S. Moon shots are not that easy - I'm still learning how to do them the way I want.

Backyard fun

Here's a view of our current backyard - we have a few projects going on over the next few weeks so will update photo as things happen!

R.I.P. Shadow

Our neighbor's horse, Shadow, left us this past Friday - sadly. A beautiful being and enjoyable to watch.

Light and shadows

Simple things like a shadow of a lamp on the wall - all moments of beauty to stop and enjoy!

Another Moment of Beauty!

I didn't see the bee when I took the photo - and it took me a while to find the 3rd insect here!

Around the house - Moments of Beauty

Wonderful light on everything these days - and the veggie garden is still producing squash and some tomatoes and peppers. Worth sitting still and absorbing all this beauty!

Roses and fences

The guys finished the fence yesterday and it came out just right - excellent work and just what we wanted.  It sure puts the white plastic fence behind us to shame! :-)

Roses have done extremely well out here - the old ones that we brought from Kensington house and the new ones from David Austin - everything has grown well and just keeps on blooming. Now if the sparrows would just get after the aphids more!!

Fence building continues

More work and should be done tomorrow if it doesn't rain!

Stormy day

The geese were flying about today making quite a racket at times; beautifully lit against the darker clouds. A slight bit of rain and the air smells wonderful!

Spiral Springs Parade

We had an interesting morning yesterday with a parade of people, dogs and a horse down Spiral Springs Road. The girls in the middle were concentrating on walking on the line of tar - and the horse seemed a bit wide-eyed and ready to run if necessary! But fun anyway.

We've begun a new project - putting up a fence on the south side of the property. This due to a new house being built on the lot next door, we wanted to have our own fence there so we don't have mismatching fences all over.
Below shows the initial shot of the fence line - and the bottom two photos show the guys working very hard to drill a hole in this very hard soil.  Even with the drill it took them all day to do the holes for the length of the fence - and a lot of work.

An Aerobatic friend from down the road.

Shadows and the rose

Beautiful fall weather here - low 70's with clear skies and a very slight breeze. Still planting plants that Diana has purchased - may finish up tomorrow and may not!
The light at this time of year is very unique and has an alive feeling to it - so here's a couple of shots with the light.

Birds of the Feeder

Three birds make the most visits to the bird feeder just off our deck. They are a lot of fun to watch as they are quite social and not at all adverse to knocking another bird off a perch to get at the food!

Male Finch

Female Finch

Sparrow

Morning has risen!