November 19 through the 25th, 2016

As I've mentioned on the last few posts we've had a later and prolonged fall this year.



The shots at the beginning of this post were taken at my neighborhood lake (Shelley) last weekend.



But we still have a lot of fall color even now.



I don't think I can ever remember a Thanksgiving with leaves still on the trees. 



The shots above were taken on November 19th and the next few below were taken on the 20th and 21st.



The shot above is one of the oak trees in front of my house and the next shot was taken when I was running errands.



I think the clouds above look like dancers.



I love the way pine cones and pine needles look with autumnal light.



The next batch of shots were taken on Thanksgiving day.



It started off drizzling and raining but by the time I got to Oxford where Bill has retired the blue sky was peeping through.



Bill made a delicious Thanksgiving dinner. 



We alternate holiday meals so I'll be doing Christmas dinner in Raleigh this year and he did Thanksgiving in Oxford.



The oak above is in Bill's front yard. 



Until recently Bill lived in a townhouse in Raleigh near where I live but after retiring he bought five acres of land and an old farm house in the country.



I still live in the same house Bill and I bought in 1984 several years after we were married and a year before our daughter was born. 



The shot above and the rest of the shots in this post were taken today, November 25, 2016.



I went on a walk at Shelley Lake and one sign of winter coming is the geese have mostly moved to the dam and the gulls are starting to return to the part of the lake with the long bridge.



The gulls go somewhere else in the spring (I suppose to breed) and return here to the lake in the winter.



The geese tend to move to the dam and big field in the winter and don't congregate as much near the bridge until the goslings are born and walking well.



The pair of mallards above are the only ones I saw at the lake today.



Hard to pick out shots.



I took so many because even with a very late fall I can't believe the colorful leaves will stay on the trees much longer.



Last week we had several nights that were well over 10 degrees below freezing.



I hope everyone that celebrates it had a happy Thanksgiving.

November 6 through November 18, 2016

Avory was home last weekend so I didn't do a weekend post.



I have a lot of shots so I thought I'd go ahead and post a hodgepodge.



The first shots are from a Sunday walk Bill and I took on November the 6th.



I think my last post had shots from my Saturday November 5th walk so I thought I'd start with the next day here.



It's been one of the longest spans of autumn color I remember.



There are still some flowers although we have had a hard freeze.



The shot below begins the part of this post of shots I took when Bill, Avory and I walked at the NC Art Museum park on Sunday, November 13.



It was a beautiful day.



I love this time of the year.



Below is a shot I took of Avory and Bill. The trick was I was walking backwards to shoot them and managed not to fall.



I can't believe that my state has still not been able to finish the Governor's race.



I can tolerate the wait as long as Roy Cooper keeps getting further and further ahead.



The Presidential election has broken my heart so I'm counting on NC getting a new Governor. Last I heard Roy Cooper is over 7,000 votes ahead (YES) but Pat McCrory can ask for a recount if the lead is under 10,000. 



Enough of that, I'll try to focus on the autumnal shots for the rest of this post.



The shot above and the rest were taken today (Friday - 11.18.16).



I haven't been on a lunchtime walk in a while.



Most of today's shots were taken in downtown Durham, NC.



It was a perfect day.



I'm surprised how many flowers are still blooming.



It's going to be beautiful tomorrow and Sunday although it will turn much colder Saturday night.



That's one of the reasons I took flower shots since I doubt many will last next week.



The shot below is one I took driving home when I was stopped at a red light.



Below is another stop light shot.



I guess I'll stop here.

Saturday Detour

I left my house this morning to go to the grocery store.



It was such a beautiful day that I ended up going on a detour to walk around my neighborhood lake.



It's been a while since I've gone on a Saturday walk.



Bill and I usually walk on Sunday at one of the state or county parks outside the city limits or bordering it.



As nice as the weekend is we probably will do that tomorrow.



I've gotten in the habit of running errands and doing laundry on Saturday.



I'm glad I fit in a walk because it was much to pretty of a day to waste.



We're still in the early part of fall color but each weekend there is more and more.



I feel like I've been saying that for a month.



It does seem like some of the trees are slower to change leaf colors than usual. 



I had planned on doing a post last weekend with shots I took on a country drive.



I never got to it and I like the shots I took today better.



I was surprised to see the road out of my subdivision totally lined with cars today.



Then I realized they were for people voting early at the community center.



I voted last week and it was my first time not voting on election day.



I didn't want to run the risk of being in a car accident and not being able to vote at all if I didn't vote early.



Considering the traffic some days it's a consideration.