Douglas County, Missouri
October 25, 2020
As I was trying to decide what I could write about this week it occurred to me that I didn’t really have much new material. My son, my daughter-in-law and my grandson were visiting us last week — so of course, they have been my main focus.
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They arrived early evening on Tuesday, Oct. 20, at the Springfield airport. We picked them up and made our almost two hour trip back home. Everyone was tired, so we relaxed and turned in for an early night sleep.
We had a lazy day most of Wednesday. We took a short walk after breakfast and on the way back we saw two stick insects — one male and one female (don’t ask me how I could tell!). I didn’t get a photo of them together, so I’ll just show the female — she was prettier than the male:
Grandpa had promised he would take our grandson for a ride on his tractor, so that was the most exciting thing that happened that day:
Shortly after that we saw a praying mantis on the window screen — even that was exciting to a four-year-old:
Later in the day a smallish black bear put in an appearance. I tried to get some photos, but they were not clear because my camera wanted to focus on the branches in front of him:
After the bear left there was a short discussion about whether or not it was safe to take a four-year-old for a walk in our woods.
The following day there were squeals of excitement from my grandson when a young buck showed up in the same place the bear had been the day before. Luckily, I was able to get an almost clear shot. The branches didn’t obscure the photo:
Grandpa had promised he would let our grandson help him mow with his zero turn mower, so of course that was a lot of fun!
My grandson kept trying to win the affections of my older cat while she was hiding under the dining room table. She seemed to enjoy his attention. I am not allowed to share my grandson’s actual unaltered photo, so this has been altered a little:
My family kept me busy over the past few days, and though I did take quite a few photos, they were mostly of my family rather than Fall scenery. Although, some were of my family surrounded by Fall scenery:
And there was a lot of color! I was quite surprised because I thought the peak in our area had already passed:
Saturday morning we took them back to the airport and as they departed by air, we headed back home in our car. It is likely that they arrived home about the same time we did. There was one last sight to see as we got close to our home — a flock of Canadians flying overhead:
We soon received an email letting us know our family had made it home safely. We were sad to see them go. I am already looking forward to our next visit — at Christmas!
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Now It's Your Turn
What have you noted happening in your area or travels recently? As usual post your observations as well as their general location in the comments.