I ran out of clever.

I haven't been taking a whole lot of photos as of recently which is largely why I haven't been posting. But I'm finally taking some time to post what has been happening since Halloween.

On the eighth of this month Joel and I celebrated our one year anniversary of being married! We've certainly done a lot and had a lot of changes happen (moved across the country, started and quit a couple jobs, started school, got a cat and chickens, moved in with lots of friends, etc.) and its been a really wonderful time. So on the eighth Joel and I went on a drive in Northwestern Oregon. Originally we had intended to go on a hike but it was really rainy and cold (big surprise, Oregon) so we just drove and had a picnic overlooking a duck-speckled lake and enjoyed each others' company and talked the afternoon away in the car.






On our way back down from Vernonia (where the lake was, it might have even been called Vernonia Lake) I spotted an apple tree along the side of the road so we stopped and I walked around on the slippery sloping side of the road and picked two apples that looked not too bad. I ate one a couple days later and it was very delicious -- crisp, tart and sweet.




Then after we came home we went out to have Mexican food and that was pretty much the day. It was a good quiet anniversary.

A couple days after that I felt the impulse to autumn-ize our garden. I actually should have pulled everything and treated the soil much earlier but, thats the way it goes sometimes. I pulled the tomatoes out.







Weeded the radish and beet patches





And let the chickens run wild and pick up after me for a bit.








Yesterday we hosted a pre-thanksgiving dinner because a lot of our friends were going to be gone for the actual day and we still wanted to celebrate together. So Kelley made us a beautiful bird, Clara and I did the veggie dishes and I made a pumpkin pie from a Sweet Meat Winter Squash from the farmers market -- tasted just like sweet potatoes, yum!



Clara made a delicious butternut squash bake.




I got some satsuma tangerines and a pomegranate at the store, tempted by their alluring colors and salivation-inducing tastes. I may go buy a crate of satsumas tomorrow...




As I said, Kelley made this beautiful turkey for us.



And we all enjoyed our decadent feast immensely, I'm sorry Clara but this is the way it is (she's dancing in the doorway).



Joel and I enjoyed some momentary snuggle time after much feasting.



And no blog post of mine would be complete without a mushroom. No idea what this one is either, I'm making the spore print as we speak. This mushroom popped up in the tree lawn in front of our house with a couple other mushrooms. The mature mushrooms are about 3-4" wide.