New views of all kinds

The view off the deck has certainly changed in the last forty-eight hours. Most of the leaves are gone, and I can see the lights of the houses down the side of the hill.

I blew the leaves off the deck yesterday afternoon, but look at it now!

I put up a thistle feeder that is two mesh bags. The birds have not found it yet. They will.

The leaves are on their way out, but they are still beautiful.

Pippin looks great in the fall too.

We live part way up a mountain and do not have many neighbors, but the few we have are wonderful. I am not counting the lady who throws her empty Mountain Dew cans in her yard or her father who visits the rest of us with a pearl handled revolver because we are “…on my property.” Seems his family owned most of the mountain a very long time ago and in his old age his mind goes back there. There is so much to learn from people, and I am sucking in all this new knowledge. Our newest neighbors are positive thinking go getters. They moved in last spring and got us moving on the road. They were a great addition. My neighbors up the mountain built their round house themselves. They lived in a tiny cabin, which I would have killed for as a playhouse when I was a kid, until they finished this wonderful two story round house with plants on the roof. They have a sweet daughter, a huge mushy dog, bees, and chickens. She has a blog, from which I have learned much. The latest thing I have stolen from her blog is the idea of making my own soap. I probably will not do this until after the holidays, but I am going to do it. It is just interesting, we three houses are all very different, but we blend very nicely. At least I think so.

I already make my own laundry soap and earth friendly dryer sheets. I was a vegetarian for five years, but gained too much weight eating the wrong things. Now I will eat free range, kissed when killed, chicken or turkey. (NOT our chickens. They will never be eaten, except mistakenly by Brando the Terrible.)