Second Snowfall of October? Oh my!

We had our SECOND snowfall of autumn last Friday.

Shock!

And this time it stuck...the ground was cold enough that the white stuff stay on the ground.

I was watching Luke for a couple of hours in the morning; I was reluctant to take him out to see the snow scenes without snow tires on my car.

He left around one; Bernie flew home around four so I got a little camera time in before he landed.

Since he wanted to just crash and sleep once he got home, I was free to go take some "me" time that evening too.

The view at the end of our street.

A quick peek at Neff's Canyon, about five minutes up the road from our place.

I love the well worn path at the base of the canyon.

At this point I am just itching to get my hands on the rental wide angle lens in order to get a photo of the whole scene in one shot.

I had the lens reserved for use on Saturday morning.

Bernie and Jeff were planning an all day golfing event, their annual "Fall Golf" outing that is now in its fifth year.

No guilt about spending the day out with my camera tomorrow too!

I zipped over to Mill Creek for some snowy shots.

I am torn: I love the macro shots.

Yet the views afar are awesome right now.

I usually do the far views first, then the macro.

And I try to remember to look overhead too.

And down at my feet as well.

A lot is visually going on up the canyons right now.

This time I remembered to wear warm boots.

Can't tell you  how often I jet up the canyon in crocs or loafers that really are not practical in snow.

A plant that delivers shiny red berries AND a rainbow assortment of leaf color AND trimmed with snow is AWESOME!

Who says speckles and freckles and spots are not attractive?

I can see rainbow colors glowing on the mountain sides too.

The sun is setting...the temperature is dropping rapidly.

But...what about the white berries on the red branches with their rainbow colored leaves?

I crunch through the snow to give them their due too.

The colors on the mountains brighten with each passing moment.

It is a race for the last remaining moments of light.

Someone else had been here before me.

The snow keeps track of its visitors.

Oh the sky!

How can I take in all this beauty at once?

Each bend of the road reveals more beauty.

I keep pulling over, mindful that the road will soon ice.

Who am I kidding, it went to 32 degrees about fifteen minutes ago.

The road IS ice, but I creep along at five miles an hour.

Which is part of the problem: going that slow lets me see more thing I want to photograph.

I sort of like the photos with just natural light, but I do a few flash lit photos too.

Which do you like better?

Yeah, I know.

WAY too many berry shots.

I got addicted to their shiny red snow capped forms.

Had to laugh at the sign.

Camping is not allowed at any time in Mill Creek Canyon.

With the snow, camping seems rather unappealing now anyway.

The light finally gave way to dark.

Photo time was over, at least for that day.

Moose on the loose!

So there I was, happily spending an entire Saturday outdoors taking pictures in the crisp fall weather.

I had spent time up in East Canyon, and was now coming back down from Lambs Canyon.

A handy wide spot near the canyon entrance allowed me to pull over and get some final shots of the area.

As is my personal outdoors/all alone policy, I was just a few feet away from my car, and other cars were going up and down the one lane road every five minutes or so.

It was Saturday after all, so leaf peeking traffic was a tad bit busier than usual on the narrow winding road.

A white car passed me by, then it suddenly slowed down and came to a complete stop.

I turned and walked closer to the car to check out what was going on.

Funny how one's city raised brain at first says "Wow look at the big dog!" 

About three seconds later, the brain re-boots and delivers a more fitting report"

"Oh my goodness...it is a MOOSE!"

I had been standing where the white car was stopped just moments before and sure as heck hadn't noticed any moose loping along the road then. 

My second thought was "I want to go stroke that beautiful fur; it looks so warm and sleek."

His coat positively glowed in the sunshine.

Thankfully my brain's CEO area quickly nixed that idea.

And at the same time my brain rang warning bells that moose can charge people and cars out in the wild.

I was beside the white car at this point and talking with the car's driver and passenger.

We agreed: the moose definitely had, and always will, have the right of way.

 

We agreed that I could follow on foot from mostly behind their car.

 If the moose took a dim view of us, I would have some shelter at least.

Mr. Moose sauntered on down the road, pausing from time to time to look back at us over his shoulder.

And yeah, we kept inching up behind him, stopping whenever he looked back.

I happened to have my 60mm fixed lens on my camera so I couldn't zoom in on him.

Still, that was much better than if I had had my rented wide angle lens on my camera, the lens I had just switch from to my 60mm.

The wide angle would have made the moose look like a toy poodle in the distance.

We followed the moose about a quarter mile down the road, to the entrance of the canyon.

At this point I was getting a little concerned as not too much farther along was the entrance to the freeway.

Having a moose on the freeway is never a good thing.

(Aren't those white back legs something cool?)

He kept going...

Then pulled a sharp left and climbed straight up the side of the canyon.

That's a pretty steep incline, but he disappeared up it in nothing flat.

Moose: All gone.

Me: STILL so excited!!!

 

 

Back to the Pumpkin patch

A year ago the trip to the pumpkin patch looked like this.

I had planned on making a pumpkin patch photo become an October tradition.
So...off we went to the Pumpkin Patch again!

A bit sleepy...he fell asleep in the car on the way to the patch.

"This is a really nice one..."

"Seems like a friendly sort of pumpkin. Nice and round."

"It is pretty big."

"How ever does one decide on just one pumpkin?"

Kick back, think about it for a bit.

"Then there is this one..."

"And this one. This one has mud on it."

"This one is kinda of heavy...can I get a little help here?"

"I think we should get two. At least two."

"I like this little one! Let's get it!"