{slightly off key humming} 🎶 Doh, dee, doh…🎶  Um…good morning, Wilson here. Let me welcome you all to this week’s edition of Nature Friday where we’re joining our hosts, Rosy and Sunny from Adventures of the LLB Gang. Don’t forget  to click on the link to see what other folks have shared.  As of today, there are officially 4 days until the official arrival of the autumn equinox but we’ve been enjoying much more mellow temps . Color Mum and me elated. We’re happy to be in the home stretch toward moving into our favorite season. Nothing says autumn like the changing temperatures we’ve been experiencing this week. And the few sprinkles of rain we received have been a bit of a bonus. Although not nearly enough moisture, we’ll take whatever Mother Nature is willing to gift us.

The Mum: Good morning, House Pony, how are you doing this fine day?

Wilson: I’m doing great Mum. The morning walk was lovely and quite enjoyable walking in the upper 50’s every morning now. I’m just loving this time of year. The leaves aren’t changing quite as much as I expected in this new neighborhood but nearby mountain roadway s are starting to turn a brilliant gold which means there are lots of leaf peepers out on the roads.

The Mum:  Guanella Pass (located about 50 miles to the west of the metro area is ablaze with golden aspens. If gas wasn’t so expensive right now we might have taken a drive out there yesterday. But for the high the cost of gas as well as crowded roads, we could have gone out to check in person. I still recall last year’s outing and don’t want to have to deal with that cluster again any time soon. You can read about that outing here. Oh well. We still have a few pics from the recent outing to Finding Nectar Farms that we wanted to share today. In case you missed our post from that outing, you can see it here.

Wilson: That chicken was quite a capture, Mum. What kind is it?

The Mum: I think that’s a Golden Laced Polish chicken named after the Polish army’s feathered caps because that plumage on it’s head resembles that feathered crest. They are pretty docile but pretty skittish but very even tempered but because of their limited eyesight due to the that crest limiting their eyesight, they are vulnerable to predators. This one was very apprehensive and wouldn’t stand still, instead nervously moving around the coop.

Wilson: Seems weird looking to me but whatever. I never have understood chickens anyway. I see you have found another chicken while you were there.

The Mum: Yes, I think this one is a Sussex chicken, a heritage breed from England, originally developed as a dual-purpose bird for both meat and eggs. They are fairly friendly and a consistent egg layer and relatively each to maintain. Their origin goes back several hundred years, but they became fairly widespread in the 1800s. She watched me like a hawk.

Wilson: Maybe she was just making sure you didn’t bother her Polish buddy.

The Mum: You may be right about that. She did seem fairly protective of that guy.

Wilson: I see you couldn’t refuse posting another goat photo.

The Mum: Yeah, I’d admit it-I’m a sucker for goats.

Wilson: They are fascinating as they bounce around and play, I’ll give you that and they seem fairly jovial.

The Mum: They really are. I just love them.

Wilson: And pray tell what is this thing? I noticed it because there are usually bunnies at this house that I’m always seeing.

The Mum: That’s a mushroom that had been turned upside down. I noticed it yesterday. It’s a fairly large one, proving once again even a little bit of moisture can sprout mushroom spores around here.

Wilson: Do they taste good?

The Mum: Ha! Leave it to you to inquire about how something tastes. I don’t know, I don’t trust eating wild mushrooms since I don’t know enough about them but these popped up practically overnight which is surprising since our so-called showers can be measured in drops rather than inches.

Wilson: Well if you ever need a taste taster, just let me know. Well that’s it for us this week. Google sent us a warning that we’re close to exceeding our space limit. Anyone know how to minimize the size of photos? Mum’s gonna have to figure out how to minimize her ever growing library of photos.

The Mum: We hope you have a terrific weekend and get out there to enjoy the last days of official summer but more importantly, we encourage you to enjoy all the beauty Mother Nature provides this time of year.

Live, love, bark! 🐾

Happy first Friday of September, campers. How you like my snooter today? I was trying to get Mum to pet me while she was working on typing this post. She said she’d give me her undivided attention in a bit. Meanwhile I’m cranking my neck and she’s not taking the bait. Harumph. I got gypped.

Anyway, September is a big month for our family because there are lots of birthdays this month including Mum’s Dad who turned 96 on September first. She’s hoping he passed the longevity gene to her since she’s getting to be a bit long in the tooth. As she typically does on his birthday, she made him a batch of beef jerky that turned out pretty nicely. Three days after giving him his gift (Mum delivered it in person last Friday when she went to visit him), he told her on Monday that it was halfway gone. Sounds like he liked it. Mum was shocked at the price of beef and wonders how people can afford it. She’s a vegetarian and prices her groceries are expensive enough these days but beef…well that’s definitely out of her league. Wilson here. As always, we’re joining the pups from Adventures of the LLB gang. Don’t forget to check out other posts by clicking on the link.

Wilson: So last weekend, Mum went to visit her great granddaughter at her house. Her grandma from Hawaii was visiting and we had a nice visit. Every week when Mum sees Halia, she’s blown away by how much she changes. She’s been on a talking tear lately and enjoys conversations that this little 2 year old has with adults. She’s totally hilarious.

The Mum: Yes, she really is hilarious. We had a spirited conversation about one of her cats, Terrance. ‘Terry’ was the shy kitty of the two that Halia’s Mum rescued from her vet clinic last summer. The other one, Phillip was always more outgoing. Whenever I’m there visiting, I almost never see Terry but last weekend, it was the exact opposite. Terry was all over me and was super intrigued with my backpack. He kept rubbing all over it and then he’d come over to me and rub all over me. Not sure what he was trying to communicate but it was such a delightful surprise despite the fact that I’m fairly allergic to cats but he was so sweet, I simply couldn’t resist him. By the time I left, I was completely plugged up but at least my eyes weren’t swollen shut. It’s important to be grateful for small miracles, right? Terry is a gorgeous grey tabby whereas his brother is not. Phil is a beauty in a different way. I don’t even know how to describe his coat but it’s super soft and he’s quite the cutie. It resembles a wild animal but also is very soft.

Wilson: Do you think they’d be willing to play with me? They don’t seem to mind the dogs in the house.

The Mum: No telling but you tend to frighten kitties so I don’t take you with me when I go visit the baby.

Wilson: It’s not fair, Mum. I’m a good boy and people love me.

The Mum: I know House Pony. But you come across as a bit intimidating.

Wilson: {Gasp!} What? Mum, you cut me to the quick. I’m a lovable guy, really I am.

The Mum: You know that, I know that, but small kitties might not see that. Maybe some day. {changing the topic so as to deflect Wilson’s sadness} You know this weekend starts football season. As in American football; folks here call football, soccer. It looks like our neighbor, Giddy Goose is all set for the season.

Wilson: He’s even dressed in the local team’s colors. That’s one outfit we’ve not seen before.

The Mum: Well you know I love sports, but my favorite sport is hockey so I’m gonna go on a quest to see if they have my favorite hockey teams jersey. Now that would be fun!

Wilson: Well, how do you think the Broncos will do this year? They were kind of less than impressive in pre-season.

The Mum: Well, it’s hard to say. They have broken the hearts of local fans for 67 years if you count the years they were in the AFL before the merger between the AFL and the NFL in 1970. I won’t get my hopes up too high and will patiently wait until the NHL starts it’s season at the end of the month before I get really worked up. I know a lot of people are celebrating the start of college football but we’ve got time to get involved in that though I wish I’d have seen the CU game. What a shocker to block the field goal in the final seconds to eek out a win. Congrats to the Buffs.

Wilson: That game sure did sound like a stunner. But enough sports, I still have one last pic from the flora from around the neighborhood. The red yucca is in bloom and boy is it impressive. I love walking past those plants along the hell strip. They sure are interesting to look at and they have some fascinating scents visiting around the plants. Sorry about the blur-the camera went off the reservation on focusing.

The Mum: Yeah, not sure what happened there but those pods steal the focus anyway. It’ll be interesting to see how they continue to change. Well that’s it from us. Sorry we don’t have a lot of photos this week. Our new neighborhood doesn’t have a lot of diversity like the old one had and thankfully we haven’t seen any Halloween inflatables. Yet. We hope that remains but we’ll see. This is our first autumn here so we aren’t sure what generally shows up. I suspect folks here are less inclined on that sort of thing. But we’ll see. Anyway, we send our best wishes for a terrific weekend. Have you got any special plans for this Labor Day weekend? We plan to just take it easy but hope we can get out for a few nice walks. Don’t forget to get outside and enjoy Nature in the last unofficial weekend of summer.

Live, love, bark! 🐾