Frosty white stuff on the peaks

Oooh, beautiful snow dusting on the peaks overnight (we had a lot of rain on the ground).Chillier weather has come in, but no snow at our house yet. The change in seasons is palpable everywhere you look.
On our way back to the house on our morning walk we saw a herd of 40 elk come over the hill and rush into the pines.With the chilly temps, had mittens on and camera back in my pocket, so little chance of catching a picture. Really too far away anyway. More bull elk in the group. This has been a banner fall for male sightings. Fun!

The castles

Our gates are back open and the deer have wasted no time in utilizing them. I don't think they're fond of jumping over as it turns out. This photo is one of the half grown fawns who come in with their mommies almost every day. So sweet.... Oh, it's been a month since our named doe (Flap) has been around. What happened?

We had to drive to Montrose yesterday to take the Rock (aka the jeep) to a dealer for a recall repair. Isn't everything on recall these days?  All went smoothly and took the time to run into a few stores that are not in Gunnison (national stores that will never open here - not enough population). Going by Blue Mesa Reservoir on the way is always a pretty sight, but looked odd now, all that water and no boats!

Have forgotten on multi posts to update my book list. I must admit that with all the company, my reading suffered - I had 3 half read books laying around for weeks. It's a good and bad thing that I'm cataloging my reading this year. I looked it up and had only finished one book in Sept. Eeeks... So three done finally: #46 Quite a Year for Plums by Bailey White, #47 The Middle Place by Kelly Corrigan, and #48 The Cradle by Patrick Somerville. All good, not great (hence the 3 star rating). The Middle Place was the only non-fiction in the bunch - a memoir of her breast cancer and family relationships - quite good, done with humor, if that can be done with this subject, and I'll read others of hers.

And guess what this is? On my way to the mailbox a porcupine was on the road. After jumping out of the car,my camera caught him running away. Looks like a soft fuzzy ball right - nooo, those quills can kill, up to 6 inches long on some parts of their bodies. Evidently breeding time is now, so he was out during the day...