Living in Houston most of my life, I am used to fall not really arriving until after Thanksgiving.  But it has sneaked in here in Huntsville.  Even my little Red Oak tree is fully red now, and leaves have fallen from other trees around.  Apparently the deer are pleased with those leeaves on the ground because they have been out in mass eating them.  Here are a couple of pictures of trees in our yard:

This is the kind of view we have in our back yard and even in the front yard on occasion.

Click on the link to see recent photos of where we live.  This is the time of the year that the azaleas and in full bloom - also are a couple shots from the golf course where the dogwood blooms can still be seen.  We are grateful to live in such a beautiful place.

The azaleas around our house are blooming but they are small compared to the older ones in the neighborhood.

We noticed that there was some grass being deposited in a motorcycle helmet that is up on the top shelf in the garage.  While I had the garage door open on a few occasions recently some birds came into the garage and began building a nest inside the helmet.

I don't mind them having a nest but they will nead their own garage door opener if they stay in my motorcycle helmet.

We heard the sound of something hitting the house and looked out the window to see a small bird lying in the flowerbed.  I went outside to see if he was still alive and he was not.  He had obviously flown into the window and killed himself.  Then I noticed a bunch of other birds the same as this one in the tree and they were eating the red berries that had been on the tree for several months.  I think they had begun to ferment.

Birds that eat fermented berries often fly drunk.  Is there a lesson here? DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE!

Doug wrote a blog the other day about our snow.  People that have moved here from the north asked how often this happens.  We say, "Rarely, and never as early as December 10th."  I was rehearsing for the church Christmas program from about 5:30 to 9:30 pm that evening.  When I came out my car was covered with snow.  There was even snow as far south as Channelview, which is southeast of Houston.  Our city was quick to respond with sand on the bridges.  The next day was a beautiful sunny day, but still cold (for us).  Here is a picture of the frozen birdbath water:

This morning it was frozen again, and we saw about 9 little birds trying to drink from it.  However, today the temperature is supposed to get up to 65, so we will have an un-winter-like weekend.  Crazy Texas weather!  Doug will be glad to get back to golfing.

We had a light snow last night as you can see from the photo.  (Try clicking on the photo to make it larger.)  Around here this is a big deal.  It is very little snow but as far as I'm concerned this is a true Winter Wonderland.  The reason is that the snow melts away in just a couple hours and by next week the temperatures will be such that we can play golf again.  It's kind of fun to watch the reaction here about this very small snow fall.  One school system near the Houston area (about 80 miles from here) is closed today because of the snow and the resulting traffic problems in that area.

We have the Christmas lights up.  Notice that they are on the porch railing.  Very suitable for lights being installed by an older person.  I really don't want to get on a ladder to put up lights on the fascia around the house especially since some areas around the house have a difficult slope and would make it difficult to support a step ladder.  Here is a photo of the lights:

Now that we have been in our new house for about 9 months the deer seem to treat our yard just like any other in the neighborhood - it's a place to get something to eat.  A few days ago I was having my coffee and we noticed a herd of deer that leisurely strolled through our yard, crossed the street and began feasting on our neighbor's flowerbed.

Here is a close-up of the baby deer from yesterday.  They stayed there several hours.  Later they and two doe were wandering around the back yard.  The song from the movie "Oliver" kept going through my mind:  "Consider Yourself at Home, consider  yourself part of the family..."