Another beautiful place...

I did a lot of picture-taking when I was out at Hovenweep and got to spend a lot of time appreciating that area's incredible natural beauty.  So when I was finally pulled out my camera for the first time since returning to Seattle, I was happy to see just how amazing a place I'm living in now, too.

This is what I want to do when I get old:
Sit with my friends by the lake.
What could make anyone happier?

Autumn seemed to stay late in Seattle this year.  I was shocked when I returned from Hovenweep in the beginning of December to see how many trees still had green leaves on them.  In Colorado and Utah, it had already begun snowing, and the plants definitely knew it was winter...not that many of them had green leaves in the first place.  But here, it looked thoroughly fall-ish for a rather long time.  The day I took these pictures, however, must have been the last day of residual autumn, given the weather that followed... read on if you weren't here to experience it!

Many an interesting waterfowl specimen can be found at Green Lake.
The "mohawk birds" (left) are among my favorites.

The last of the daylight shines across the lake from the cattails.

Coots gather together as darkness falls.

As a bonus from the nature gods, mere hours after I took these photos it began SNOWING in our never-quite-cold-enough-to-freeze-that-rain city.  And after about five days of that, it took perhaps one to warm up fifteen degrees and melt almost everything.  Presently, we are enjoying another rain shower.  There's an incredible planet for you.