Silly Pet Halloween Costumes - Part 3

Part 3, the finale of our parade of Halloween silliness begins with Fergus as a beanie boy:

Bugsy as the Candy Corn Witch:

Fergus as the Easter Bunny, with Daisy searching behind him for eggs:

Daphne with a spider on her head:

Seamus as a goofy devil:

Georgette as a ballerina in a lovely tutu:

Ruby as a duckling:

Clover as a French, Apache dancing pumpkin-head:

Daisy as Dale Evans, the cowgirl:

Blue as Claude Dinglehoffer, a rhinestone cowboy:

Silly Pet Halloween Costumes - Part 2

Part 2 of our parade of silliness begins with Clover as Ginger, from "Gilligan's Island:"

Ruby as a bunny rabbit:

Seamus in drag. I've given him the drag name of Wilma Fingerdoo:

Fergus as a skunk, with Daphne smelling his stinkiness:

Daphne as a caterpillar:

Bugsy as a Frenchman:

Remy as Boogers, the clown:

Clover as a purple-winged angel with a Halloween themed baseball cap:

Jack as a bumblebee:

Meghan as Minnie Mouse:

Silly Pet Halloween Costumes - Part 1

It's that spooky time of year again, and the pets have been preparing their costumes for many weeks so you will be amused and amazed. Georgette has died since her photos were taken, but they bring back such warm, happy thoughts of her and I am including them here.

Let's start the pageant of silliness with Clover, dressed as "The Littlest Angel" with white wings:

Blue as the Wicked Witch of the South Pasture:

Daisy as a crabby pirate who'd surely make you walk the plank:

Jack, with a shark biting his head:

Meghan as a monkey:

Fergus as a magic unicorn:

Georgette as a sleepy cowgirl:

Seamus as Yukon Cornelius from the Island Of Misfit Toys in "Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer:"

Daphne as a valiant fire chief:

Jack, ready for a fiesta (or a siesta):

Bugsy as court jester:

Pre-Halloween Visions Around The Farm

We had our first hard freeze in October, requiring me to break the ice on the stock tank with the handle of a flat shovel. I had to use the handle because the blade was covered with dried manure:

We also had our first snow one night. It didn't pile up, but it lasted most of the next day:

I noticed, as I have in past years, that some of the autumn leaves of Bittersweet Nightshade turn a beautiful purple color:


Combined with its red berries, Bittersweet Nightshade is a lovely plant:


 The pigeons continued to get a screen in their window during the days, but I closed the window during the nights:

The little hens don't seem to care about the cold. They just wish they could go outside. Of course they have no concept of roving, ravenous, chicken eating foxes:

I'm often outside, doing chores, just as the sun breaks above the trees in the morning:

And there's a new vision each morning. This photo was taken about the same time but the next day after the above photo:

I pass this house every time I drive to or from Massena, and they always decorate extravagantly for holidays. But this year they outdid themselves, with a plethora of skulls and skeletons. This is the view from the road, showing human, horse, dog and vulture skeletons, not to mention what appears to be a winged ram skeleton:

I walked up the driveway for a side view, where the cedars supported bats on strings and some of the skeletons were easier to see:


But that wasn't the entire display. On the other side of the driveway they had ghosts, tombstones, vampires, ghouls and pumpkins. Now that's what I call a Halloween display!:

An Autumn Walk Around The Farm - Part 2

I was walking around the farm one chilly, windy autumn day (see also Part 1, posted yesterday) and was in the south field. I pointed the camera across the gravel road to a site which once had a house trailer on it. This is the same site where I've previously photographed baby foxes and heritage roses:

We'd had lots of rain and the pasture was growing mushrooms:

The Pennsylvania Smartweed was red and apparently done for the year. It's an annual, but returns in abundance each summer:

The winter hay supply was lined up and ready. I will begin feeding it out any day now:

I had about 7 giant puffballs spring up along the fence line. I don't much like them as I think they're about as tasty as Styrofoam, but the Amish lady down the road asked if she could pick them and I said yes. I saw she'd left one and walked over to see why. It was truly ugly and kind of deformed, so I guessed it scared her away. I think I'd have passed it by also:

The view across the gravel road and north field to the autumn woods beyond:

I walked along the edge of the gravel road and looked back, past the cattails to my barn:

A few Small White Asters were still blooming:

Almost no New England asters were still in bloom, but I found this one plant. Alas, it must have been hit with a hard freeze because its flowers were small and curled up:

We had a lot of Monarch butterflies this year but apparently this one didn't migrate in time to miss the killing freeze:

I began wondering if there were any other flowers hardy enough to still be blooming and indeed, Bouncing Bet was still going strong beneath the towering Rugosa Roses:

I looked up at the top of the Rugosa Roses and they still had a few flowers on them also. Canada Geese were headed south overhead, the leaves were falling, the nights were freezing - but a few hardy plants were still blooming: