Where did October go?

It seems like time is just flying by. I count this as a blessing. Now that I'm teaching Sunday school on Saturday nights (I know, confusing), I'm really starting to enjoy kids, and Tony and I have been talking frequently about how we want to raise our children in the future. I am soaking up this time of being young and without children for now, but I must say that I'm not as afraid as I was a year ago about what is coming next.

I don't really have any rhyme or reason to these photos, I just happened to like them.

Blech. I wonder how many photos I'll post until he'll quit again? Hopefully not very many.

I'd like to keep him around for a really long time.

A really *really* long time.

I'm going to tease you now with food. I'll be posting these recipes in the upcoming weeks, but I thought I would taunt you a bit :).

These are butternut squash filled tortellini with a brown butter sage sauce. Yum num num.

Can you guess what this pie is made out of? Pumpkin? Sweet Potatoes? Yams? You'll just have to wait and see. You won't even believe this recipe! The pie comes out tasting like the perfect combination between pumpkin and pecan pie--perfect for those of us who can't make up our minds during the holiday season.

I love fall!

Fall is by far my favorite season. Living in southern California is a bummer for this simple reason. I miss all of the beautiful colors fall in Ohio produced. I miss the crisp, cool air, and the anticipation of winter. Tony and I have decided that after I'm all done Ph.Ding over here, that we'll most likely try to move back to the Midwest or the south. Only a few more years (decades, eons) until that happens.

I've definitely tried to create the fall feeling recently, by putting out our blown-glass pumpkins, and eating all the apples I can handle (which also happen to be on sale). Recently I made a brown apple Betty with a friend using Granny Smiths.

Don't worry, I'll post the recipe eventually...

There are moments when fall is captured here naturally, even though we aren't in the fall climate I'm used to experiencing. I love how the sunlight catches the grass on the hill outside my balcony on Sunday mornings. As the days get shorter, I am increasingly thankful for the bright light.

Flowers are still in full bloom around here, which is common for October in San Diego. Thankfully, the people who take care of the apartment property are better at watering the plants than I am.

The birds are still populating the feeder outside our balcony. I like to watch them play with one another (i.e. have a mortal combat for birdseed).

My favorite bird that hangs around these parts is still the hummingbird. Even with my telephoto lens, it's still hard to capture them, thus the lomo-effect I added with photo editing software to hide the blurriness.

Enjoy the fall weather!

I've lost a sizable portion of my attention span, and count of the days

Let's face it friends, I am done keeping track of this goal. I'd like to pretend that I take photos everyday, and have ants in my pants about posting photos up every week, but I don't. I really would prefer to start posting whenever I feel like it, and actually try to deliver some quality photos. Well, semi-quality. Quasi-quality? Dang it, they're better than average.

I appreciate all of the feedback. I'm currently planning a few wall layouts, combining some of my favorite (and your favorite) photos with themes like, New Orleans, nature and family :).

I hope you enjoy a few of the photos I've taken in the last two weeks!

This is a (very) dead tree on the horse farm near our apartment complex. It gives me the willies, especially when there is a large crow population sitting on it, ominously staring at me as I run (walk, crawl, dry-heave) back to the apartments after running on the trail.

Here are some lovely flowers, that are only semi-dead :).

I probably hate this picture more than anyone else, so y'all can just keep a lid on it. One of our ceramic flower pots turned into Tony's ash tray one day, after all of the already dead plant life caught on fire, and evidently remained smoldering for a few days on our porch. Tony thought it was cool. I did not.

Did you know that jalapeno peppers turn red when they are at the end of their life? Yeah, me either. Now that this one is good and dried up, we're saving it for seeds for the next year. Maybe next year I won't destroy our garden by neglecting it. At first I was just occasionally forgetting to water them, then blatant laziness settled in for good.

This is a non-red, shriveled jalapeno. Compare and discuss.

And last but not least, garlic. Delicious.