My Favorite Photos - October 2021

 Below are some of my favorite photos from October

Olivia and I visited a pumpkin patch on October 1st. They had a truck and fall display that I thought would make a nice back-drop for a picture.

Olivia and I are doing a survey of the different types of trees at our farm. She's collecting a leaf or needles and pressing them. I'm taking her photo by the trees to show their shape and size. 

The roses continued to bloom well into October.

My sister and I went to Marine Mills Folk School's grand re-opening. 

Olivia and I went to Springboard for the Arts open house. Down the block from the arts organization was a barber shop. This hand-painted bench was outside the barber shop.

The fire station held an open house. They lit this house on fire and closed one of the doors in the house to show how it can protect the items and people in that room. For the rooms that didn't have the door closed, everything in the room was burned. It was a very powerful lesson.

We went to the Twin Cities Corn Maze. It was a fun way to spend part of the day.

My sister, Olivia, and I went to an apple orchard. We also went on a hayride while we were there. 

Olivia and I spotted an eagle one morning when I was taking her to the homeschool co-op. This eagle was at the end of our road.

Paige and I celebrated our 31st anniversary. These are the flowers he gave to me.

Here's another tree at our farm. The chairs belonged to my parents, and I inherited them when they died. We had the tree planted when it was about 10 feet tall - so a little more than twice Olivia's height. We have lived here since 1995, so I like seeing how tall the trees have gotten during that time.

This is a willow tree that we planted on the nature trail at our farm in the early 2000s. So, it is about 17 or 18 years old now. 

This is part of the back part of our farm. All those trees we had transplanted when they were about 5-6 feet tall. The previous owners had planted a ton of little pine trees in a nursery-type area. They were all planted very close to one another. We knew that we needed to have them transplanted or they would have grown all together and none would have done well. The trees now are doing very well and have created a private area again.

In mid-October, I went to the back part of our farm and spread milkweed seeds. 

There was a gentle breeze, and I enjoyed watching the milkweed seeds fly off in the wind.

My sister and I went to the grand re-opening of White Bear Arts Center. This is one of the paintings in a gallery. I miss having cats. We had cats from 1989 until earlier this year when our last one died. 

At WBCA, one of the exhibits looked at upcycling items to create art. The flowers below are made from plastic bottles and are hanging from the ceiling with a clear thread. A fan gently blew air on them and they moved slightly. The reflections would move on the cement as well. 

This was an upcycled art piece that used plastic bags to create the mushrooms. The artist crocheted them - both the tops and stems.

At the WBCA grand re-opening, there were some art cars. This one caught my eye.

There were lots of messages on the car, including this one: 

During October, I've been helping Olivia learn to cook. We are doing a 4-H online cooking/baking program. This one taught her how to make cheese-filled meatloaf that was wrapped with crescent roll dough. 

For Olivia's PSEO Digital Imaging class, she needed to do a photojournalism story. We stopped at a local nursery that has goats and geese. 

On the Friday of Halloween weekend, Olivia came home for dinner. I made homemade lasagna, salad, and pumpkin pie. 

On Halloween morning, the sun was rising as the moon was still high in the sky.

I liked the beautiful blue sky behind the pine trees in our front yard. The lights mark the front yard and one side of our driveway. They are up for Halloween. In a few weeks, they'll change to Christmas lights.