It's PIE Time! Er, HIGH Time!

These are the pies that I made with my Gays Mills apples. I also put up some canned applesauce. I tried a "rustic tart" but didn't like the way it came out so well. My mistake was in using canned cranberries, instead of dried cranberries. It was too moist. The leafy top was the most fun! Alan got the flowers for Thanksgiving.
This is the fine arts building going up on the UD campus. This is in the general area of where our house was located. It is now a couple layers higher than when I took this photo! We're all wondering when the top will be reached!

Yosemite Valley

On my last plane flight over California (Sacramento to Los Angeles), the pilot announced that those passengers sitting on the left side of the plane could get a good view of Yosemite Valley. I thought the view was amazing! The color in the photo isn't great, but you can clearly see Half Dome on the right and El Capitan on the left, with the Yosemite Valley in between. I try to think about my routes, and sit on the side that I think might give me the best/most interesting views. Coming into Los Angeles I always see the big HOLLYWOOD sign on the hillside.

Dubuque Wildlife

Here are some photos that Papa took of a baby animal down our back hillside. Do you know what kind of animal this is? Here's a little closer picture: Look closely at its tail. Now do you know what kind of baby animal it is? It is NOT a rat. Write you answer in the comments!
Here is a big, beautiful web that a very industrious spider spun this fall:
Here is a very funny-looking Papa after he had some dental surgery and his face was partially numb! He couldn't smile on the left side of his face.

Trip to Gays Mills, Wisconsin

In October, when I came home from Glenn's, Alan said he had a surprise for me. He had planned a lovely day seeing the fall colors and driving through the apple growing areas of southwest Wisconsin. Here's an apple orchard in the Gays Mills area, surrounded by beautiful trees. Look closely and you can see the red apples on the trees. At one of the farms where we stopped, goats climbed up on this apparatus to get corn that Alan sent up in a little bucket.
Here I am beside the apple-sorting machine. It was stopped right now, but it was fascinating to watch the apples fall through the different sized holes to grade them according to size. We also bought a bushel of apples. Coming soon are the pie photos!!

Life of a Corpse Lily

I know that most of you have seen this in person, but I wanted to document the corpse lily that I got from Andrea Roys. I had been out of town when it came to life in the spring, and the blossom stalk grew up 30 inches before I even got the bulb planted. Here it is on May 8: By May 19 the lily had blossomed. I set it next to the front door, but the unfortunate thing was that it gave off a really bad odor.
Sometime after the whole bloom stalk died off, up came the leaves that lasted the rest of the summer. Here they are on October 15.
By October 28 they leaf stalk had weakened and was beginning to die off. So I unpotted the large bulb around November 5 and will bring it in the house to sit through the winter