It's Fall Around Here

Finally...

It's beginning to feel like fall around here.... The weather is nice. We are enjoying being outside more.

This is my favorite time of the year! I love to see the leaves changing color... getting ready for winter. It won't be long and we'll be going home for Thanksgiving. I love getting together with family for the holidays!

my "pumpkin" I found on clearance at a Cracker Barrel Country Store last year

The home school group visited a local cotton field last week. The kids all picked some cotton, and they have to do some research about cotton (whatever they want to know about it) and be prepared to share what they learned when we meet next week. We will take a tour of the local cotton gin next week as well.

They all thought it was great fun picking the cotton. Of course, we were only there for probably 30 to 45 minutes, at the most! Some of the adults began telling the kids of stories told to them by their grandparents about being in the fields all day picking cotton. I can't even imagine! 

We visited our county fair last week. It is very small scale, nothing compared to the national fair we visited a couple of weeks ago! But it is always fun to walk around enjoying the displays, meeting friends, watching the entertainment, seeing the livestock shows.

And of course, the food! We have local organizations (like the Lion's Club, Kiwanis Club, and many others) that set up food booths. One of my favorites is funnel cakes from the Lion's Club! I like them so much that I sent my two oldest children over to pick up a couple of them after supper last night! Lol. We live close to the fair grounds, so it was very convenient!

If you've been reading my blog for any length of time, you know how much we like to watch for birds around my house. We'd been hearing this one in the woods behind the house for a few days, but we hadn't seen him. Then Friday morning (I think it was Friday...) my son and I were sitting on the couch reading, when all of a sudden he popped up off the couch and excitedly announced that there was a red-headed woodpecker in the backyard! Of course we dropped the books, picked up the camera and headed outside to try to capture the bird in photograph. It's very pretty, as you can see, and we hope it will stay around for a bit.

This last picture is of a type of crab spider. It has made a web between the crepe myrtle tree and the house.

Very creepy looking to me. I think all spiders are creepy looking, but I do appreciate their God-given job of helping to keep the insect population under control! We have several spider webs around the yard and as much as I dislike spiders, I try not to disturb them.

So... What are you doing to enjoy your fall?