The larch pine are starting to turn.

You can see the chartreuse-ish needles against the pine that stay ever green.

A hint of gold to come against a blue, blue sky.

BUT … WAIT ??? 79!! If that is correct, I believe we set a record high for October 10 as the previous record was 75F.

At any rate, it has been warm.

Some would say hot.

Like me, the dear sweet Bear boy is getting older.

“Seniors”, we are…

My good dog.

Sweet Bear!

Work continues to be crazy busy, but easing a bit…mostly due to the fact that I’ve broached the worst part of the learning curve for our new way of doing things. There is an October 1 deadline so it is still head down and fingers flying.

However. One must eat and sleep and rub the stomachs of Bear and Auggie, walk in the woods and partake of this last week of almost summer-like weather – 74F today!

The walking plan with my neighbor hit a snag last week and she is moving to a new job which will put the kibosh on morning walking. I’ve taken to doing things like aerobic yard raking and next week will start a plan of a 2-4 mile walk with Bear at lunchtime.

Thankfully, though, my neighbor’s chickens are still a-laying on schedule and this morning I got a fresh 2 dozen:

The photo does not do it justice. There is the largest egg I’ve ever seen. I got out my kitchen scale and most of the eggs weighed 48-62 grams. The monster weighed in at 80 grams! I plan to poach it on Sunday. Yes, there will be photos. I’m wondering if it is a double. We will see.

Auggie is running the bookmaking on single, double or a long shot triple…

I think I noted that it was 74F today. Shade-time for the Beardog!

A lovely afternoon.

Yet another photo of the fuschia. They show signs of fading a bit, but still – beautiful!

In addition to his bookie duties, Auggie is mostly back on track with his daily rounds.

It is exhausting.

Almost Friday!

So, despite the fact that I have an additional 1,000,000 gray hairs…and given that I made the decision to let Auggie be an outdoor cat (daytime!!!)… I put on my big girl panties, stiffened my upper lip, said a LOT of prayers…and allowed Auggie to choose to go outside or not… the day after.

As it happened, Auggie did go out, but he stuck close to Bear or I and he was not out long this day after the difficult day. He seemed to be extra cautious as well as hyper-sensitive to noise … especially the noise of the ravens. Hmm. I don’t think the ravens would “attack” him, but they do swoop down over Bear (and Karl before) …and steal treats left lying around. So, maybe they taunted Auggie.

A mystery.

I am grateful that Auggie is cautious and vigilant. I am sorry that he has been SO frightened.

But.

Onward.

This evening, we all walked together in the woods:

A lovely, early Fall evening…

… the day after Auggie’s difficult day.

Good grief!! – just LOOK!!!

I missed so many markets because of heat/smoke/summer traffic and my own wimpy-ness in dealing with the aforementioned.

I (and Bear) went to town yesterday and I hadn’t thought I’d go today (Saturday!!!), but I looked at the calendar and after today there were only 4 Farmer’s Market Saturdays before the market was done for the year.

It is prime time for local produce, so I told Bear that in the mode of Big Dog, i.e. “if you can’t run with the big dogs, stay on the porch” … off we went to market, because WE are BIG DOGS!!!

YES, we are! The traffic was not as bad as it has been since some of the summer tourist stuff is done. And even though it was forecast to hit 84F this afternoon, this morning was cool and beautiful.

AND, we came home with sunflowers, carrots, a GIGANTIC leek, purple cabbage, the greenest and most luscious broccoli I’ve ever seen, heirloom cherry tomatoes, PEACHES (Montana Peaches!!) and golden plums.

The peaches were the big surprise. The grower is from Rollins, Montana which is a town on the west (west-southwest) side of Flathead Lake. Peaches!!! – from Montana … and from a town near me. The peaches are destined for a peach-ginger sorbet and also for a peach aqua Fresca. I might just eat the golden plums – they are super sweet and delicious. (I actually have about a dozen peaches and plums…only a few were added to the photo above.)

Not sure about everything else, but this week…this week, I will be eating fresh and local produce – and loving it!