Moving into Fall

It's getting cooler, wetter, and the leaves are slowly turning into the muted yellows and reds that herald the fall season in the Northwest. The Willamette Valley stays fairly green throughout the fall and winter. With so many evergreens in Oregon, that's not surprising. But the grass also stays pretty green, as do the ferns and many other plant species.

Usually this means it's time to move my photography indoors. This year, I'm going to try to do more outside shooting, including a great idea for glamour in the fog that a good friend of mine gave to me. I'm also hoping for a good snowfall in the valley this year, as I have a couple of ideas I'd like to try in the snow as well.

With the arrival of fall, and definitely with the arrival of grandchildren, we've enjoyed going out to Sauvie Island to visit the Pumpkin Patch to choose our pumpkins for carving to let our granddaughter play in fields and on the hay pyramid. This year, we got to take our grandson as well. The only thing that would have made it more fun, would have been to be able to take our other granddaughter along as well. Her mom and dad took her to a pumpkin patch in California where they live, though, and I'm sure they had fun too.

We're going to visit that granddaughter next week. Our son and daughter-in-law think we're coming to see the whole family, but Wanda assures me that we're going there to see the baby. We haven't seen her in about a month (except for on video sharing), and Wanda is getting itchy to hold her again. The period between this visit and Christmas is going to be very difficult for her. It's a good thing Ryker, (our 6 week old grandson) is around for her to cuddle. Of course, it's fun for me too...

Being a grandfather is great fun, and I really enjoy holding and playing with my grandkids. My maternal grandfather died before my mother was born, and my paternal grandfather had very little to do with me, so I've had to wing it. I'm going to try to be as much a part of my grandchildren's lives as they and their parents will allow. Fortunately, they've all been great.