Or - The Autumn Leaves of Red and Gold...
What better way to start a brilliant and beautiful day than with someone else cooking your breakfast...to order!!
Off to the VFW we went for their First Sunday of the Month Breakfast Buffet. We started out with French Toast, hash browns, sausage, bacon, cantaloupe, watermelon, strawberries and pineapple. Then, we had them whip us up a made-to-order omelet. Mine was easy...I'll take one of everything. Thank you very much.
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| Mmmmmm, good!! |
After breakfast it was off to Walmart to get the essentials and then to the Dollar Tree for the rest of the essentials. You know you're dealing with someone who is really frugal when they think the stuff at Walmart is too expensive and you'd get a better deal at Dollar Tree.
Yep!!
Frugal!!
After the Tree, we started out on the first leg of our Trifecta of Autumn Awesomeness...Coulon Park.
This is what the park looked like when we were there last October. The first two pics were taken on the 13th and the next two were taken on the 19th.
I'm just running these out so you can contrast them then and now.
Bottom line, we expect things to pick up the pace by the end of next week. I'm just wondering if the long summer weather has thrown off the timetable a bit.
OK, back to the here and now. Nice, but still a bit drab. I was spoiled by last year.
One of the things that was definitely helped by all the hot weather we've had has been these disgusting things.
Carol calls this a Crab Orb Weaver. I call it ugly!!
But the trees were why we were there...
...and these things had webs all over the place and all through the trees. They can cover a span of over 10 feet with one strand that they build their web on.
Artsy-Fartsy Alert
I was shooting the spider seen right before this and just rotated my wrist from where it was (reaching down towards the spider) and then pressed the shutter release.
I thought it was kinda good.
De leaves, Boss!! De leaves!!
We didn't walk around too much for a couple of reasons:
1) The trees weren't as nice as we remembered.
2) The traffic was heavy and we had to keep stepping in and stepping out of the lanes. (It was a Sunny Sunday, remember? Everyone was out.)
3) I'm naturally very lazy. Without the proper motivation, I'll go and sit on a couch and watch TV.
Looking down towards the entrance to the park.
It's gonna be something when it finally turns!!
Here's a small hint about how great it's going to be.
It's coming...
...although some parts have just about made the transition.
A detail of a tree.
And we walked over to the pier where Ivar's is.
Y'Know, I expect to see some semi-strange things when we go out for a walk and, today, I wasn't disappointed because we saw...
...a table full of Pirates.
Don't ask.
I don't know.
They were just there. Dressed up like Pirates. At Ivar's.
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| Argh, Matey!! |
And a couple of Canada Geese. I always want to say Canadian Geese but I'm told that is wrong. It is always Canada Geese or a Canada Goose. Seems stupid to me but I am, if nothing else, a good soldier. I follow the legitimate orders of anyone smarter than me. (And that's a boatload let me tell ya!!)
More trees. What a surprise, eh?
Driving out I grabbed this shot. Hahaha, didn't have to dodge any cars!!
And we were off to the Cedar River to check on the salmon!!
Cedar River Selfie
Hello, Mr. Duck. You seen any of those wacky Duckeroos lately?
You know the ones I'm talking about...
Yeah!! Those Common Mergansers.
So, when we watch them and when I try to take pictures of them it's like this.
Now you see 'em...
Now you don't!!!
It's that fast!
One moment they're there and then there's a ripple on the surface of the water and that's all. And who knows where they'll pop up at again. I sure don't.
BTW, I've gotten a lot of pictures of ripples like this one. Lots.
Then, to our wondering eyes should appear...Two of 'em!!
Eventually, and this is a first for us, there were a total of five of them all together. I mean, for the longest time we've only seen one and then the other day there were two and now, today, there were five. Five females.
The male's head is colored a bit like a mallard's head but the body color is definitely different between the male Merganser and the mallard.
Then there were the gulls and this juvenile Gloucous Seagull.
We were beginning to think we wouldn't see any of the sockeyes and then we spotted this fine fellow. There weren't many out today.
I think we're still way early in the season for them to migrate. I hope so because last year it was like you could walk across the river using them as stepping stones.
And today they were on both sides of the river. Last time we saw them they were all on the south side, towards the vegetation.
I still get a kick out of how clear and clean the water is in the Cedar River. And also how clean it is in Lake Washington.
Renton Garden Area Selfie!!
We've seen this before but never gone over to it so today, given the paucity of fish, we walked on over to see what this was. It's a public garden for Renton Residents. We know this cuz there was a sign telling us to keep our mitts off the garden if we weren't authorized to be there.
Harumph!!
I know when I'm not welcome.
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| Awww, ain't we precious!?! |
My flower picture.
My single, solitary, only flower picture for this blog.
There just weren't too many that looked good.
But there were plenty of these Creepy Crawlers.
That Crab thingie again.
Here's a view of the Cedar River from the front of the Renton Senior Citizen Activity Center.
Which, like nearly every other time I've been there, had no activity going on at all.
But they've got this nice park.
We were walking back and not expecting to see any salmon when we were pleasantly surprised to see a couple of them on the north side...the side without any vegetation.
But we were ready to go to our next stop...
...at our park. And we had an audience when we pulled up. There was a gulp of Cormorants sitting out on a log.
That's right. A group of Cormorants is called a Gulp. Hahaha, how'd they come up with that!?! Finches? A Charm. Lapwings? A Deceit. Peacocks? A Muster or an Ostentation. A bunch of Starlings? A Murmuration.
Seriously!! What were these guys smoking when they came up with these names!?!
A great October day on the lake.
Lake Washington Shadow Selfie!!
And a shot of the water. Just because.
Hey!! It's MY blog and I can if I wanna!!
Besides, I like it.
When we arrived, this couple offered to share the picnic table with us. They opened the door and so we, and by we I mean Carol, walked in and got into a nice conversation with them.
Seems they took this recumbent bike to Europe with them in their suitcases about 10 years ago and then rode around Europe on it. Through Germany and Austria and so on.
What a trip that must have been. Especially when they were packing for their trip.
So we had a good day. Breakfast at the V. Shopping at the W. More shopping at the DT and then our favorite spots: Coulon Park. the Cedar River and our park.
Who could ask for more?
Life is very good.
Hooah!!
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