Of Kittens, Bluebirds, and Sugar Days

A few recent photos starting with Morgan doing a great job impersonating a crazy cat lady.
Shitake mushrooms growing on a log that Leon got for us at the farmer's market!
Ships that pass in the night.
"Get me out of here!!!"
Preparing for Halloween.
Bigger mushrooms.
Despite the rains last night, we were not to be deterred from trick-or-treat-ing.
Our little bluebird.
And the bluebird's end of the night bounty.
Bad sign when it's after 9pm and you're explaining what a milk dud is.
The start of the Halloween evening with the bluebird and jackrabbit ready to take to the streets.

Cousins and Kitten

Vanessa, Leon, Izze came to visit this past weekend. We had a great time. Here are a few photos of our adventures.








Our other big news of this past week is that while driving Lena to preschool on Thursday Morgan found this kitten in the middle of the road. It hadn't been hit but but was scared, tiny, and hungry. Now he is in our kitchen being fostered for a bit and doing great. So far our cats seem moderately skeptical, or at least aloof.

The start of autumn

Autumn is here. It is one of our favorite seasons and we've been staying pretty busy (hence the lack of recent posts). Here are some photos from September and October, starting with a few of us celebrating Lena and Paul's birthdays with Alan, Paul's dad.
Birthday party - complete with hats.
Lena sporting some birthday threads from Aunt Lynn & Uncle Jack.
Hazel taking it all in.
Morgan's delicious checkerboard cake!

A really neat wooden jigsaw puzzle made by Liberty Puzzles (http://www.libertypuzzles.com/) that Paul's parents gave Lena.


Hazel has begun trying solid foods from time to time. She is actually much less interested now that she knows what we're all putting in our mouths.
Dutch pancake (those are apples not mushrooms)!
Lena one night decided to make herself a computer so that she could find out the weather forecast for the next day. Here she is logging in.
A sunny afternoon earlier this month at Duke Gardens.
Can't remember whether this was a baby sandwich or a "bed", yet the bread with cucumber pillow seems a bit suggestive.
Another shot from Duke Gardens.
Lena and Hazel goofing around. Hazel is now crawling all over the place and has reached the "I'm going to make diaper changes, at best interesting, and at worst an olympic wrestling event." She is very excited to chase her big sister around (and vice versa)
Browsing together.
Last week Paul was at a conference in Minneapolis and after he got back our friend Melanie came for a visit. Here we are all making leaf prints on muslin for curtains for the dining room and Lena's bedroom.


This morning we took a nice walk at Hemlock Bluffs Nature Preserve, located about 20 minutes from the Raleigh-Durham airport. It was great to be outside for so much of the weekend and to spend some time in the woods as they begin to transition to fall.






Checking out the fungi!

One of the cool things about the preserve is that there are several plant species that grow on the cool north-facing bluffs there that otherwise are found only in western North Carolina in the mountains. These are populations that are hold overs from the Ice Age when much of the climate across the state was cooler and wetter.

A couple videos of Hazel goofing around.