Good morning everyone and Happy Saturday! It is a mild but cloudy morning here today. It has been a very nice warm week, perhaps our last of the year. The temps really start to drop tomorrow and continue dropping all week. But this week has been a nice one, the sun has been shining most days, the fall colors were at their peak, it really was beautiful. But with wind and rain Thursday night the leaves have really begun dropping, depositing their bright colors all over the ground and on my deck. Some trees are nearly bare of leaves now. Speaking of Jasper, well, I am now anyway. He hasn’t been around much this past week. He has found a better food source, so he only stops in once in a while to pick up a quick snack before he goes back to work. What is he doing? He discovered my landlord’s walnut tree in the front yard which produces hundreds of walnuts each year. I could just see his eyes bulge out when he spotted those big walnuts.

So he left the peanuts and starting gathering walnuts before anyone else gets them. He doesn’t know that no one else wants them. But he is very happy and doesn’t have to worry about those crazy chipmunks either. Poor Jasper. I think he was close to a nervous breakdown. He went into one of the boxes on the deck looking for peanuts a week ago and I could see him running in circles and then the mad scramble to get out of that box as fast as he could. Then he stopped and turned around to see what that thing was that he met in the box. A little white-throated sparrow stuck his head out to see what was going on. I could hardly believe he got scared by that little bird. When he saw what it was the chase was on! After all, he has his reputation to protect. So he went through all four boxes and little sparrows were flying out in every direction. Then I called him over to get a peanut. He just took the one and left, guess he only wanted a quick breakfast before starting his new “job”. Oh well, these things happen Jasper. The featured image at the top are my red geraniums from 2 weeks ago, they don’t look quite so nice now however. Flower season is at an end up here.

Then in the two pictures above we have Jasper running off with his peanut after his big scare with the monster in the box. And in the apple tree sits the “monster”, a white-throated sparrow. I hope you all have a most wonderful weekend and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2020 Steve McLeod.