Winter's arrived 10-17-06

Our first major snowstorm hasn't been so bad. It started out as rain almost all night last night. But as the sun rose, the rain turned to snow. It's been snowing all day and since the temp hanging right at freezing all day, we have the heavy wet stuff.

So since I couldn't ride my bike, I decided to burn some calories shoveling some snow in the back yard. Didn't really need to back there, but the dogs love to be outside with me and they really get pretty frisky.

The plastic pink flamingo is my neighbors - she loves them and has them sprinkled all through her flower gardens. They weather man says tomorrow we may lose most of the snow as the sun will return with temps in the 40's, but snow will be back this weekend. We sure can use all the moisture so I can't complain. And thankfully there has been no ice.

Halloween is in the Air

October 7, 2006

I believe this day is probably the last 'summer-type' day we will have this year - the temps around here got in the 80's. So I decided to go for a day trip on my bike along all the many trails up and down the river. It was so gorgeous. I also picked up a Halloween costume from a friend that contained a 'fake foot'. We are having a costume contest in our office this year. So as I was riding the trails with my backpack, we left the toes hanging out and I got many a chuckle from others out enjoying the late summer sun.I had to get a few pics of all the decorations going up around the neighborhoods. It was such a colorful autumn day, but by late afternoon, the wind had switched to the NW and I had a tough ride up that last big hill to my home. It was worth the effort to be outside all day. In two day I expect to see snow on the ground over all the golden leaves now blown off the branches after two days of strong winds.



Also decided to post some pics of my favorite trails all covered in gold and some sites along the way.

These pics were all taken along the trails in Ft. Lincoln State Park south of Mandan.

Here are a couple from along the Heart River, for a couple of minutes I was sharing the summer sun on a rock overlooking the river with a pigeon.


And here is the trail on the east side of the Missouri that runs along the outside of the Riverwood Golf course - so many trees and full of great shade in the summer.