Record numbers

Gold leaves. The last hold-outs. The undecided ones. By the time they finally make up their minds to cast off, the others have already thrown in the towel.

There are a few of these upstarts, but they're the underdogs. The gold ones clearly have the majority, and they're winning by a landslide.

They've successfully unseated the birds and squirrels in the birdbath.

Here's Henry, the neighbor kitty. He's an undecided one too.

He's in our yard exploring his options. He thinks our leaves might be slightly more politically correct than the ones in his yard. Soon he'll be curling up for a nap--no doubt to sleep off his election-night hangover. His owners were probably a little too liberal with the catnip.

So, since you're probably wondering, the encyclopedias found a new home. I'm pretty sure the turtle and lobster helped seal the deal. Mr. Gadget now has a few of his electronic gadgets up for sale. I offered him a small gingerbread man and a stuffed cat from my treehouse collection to help attract buyers but he wasn't interested. Such a shame. There may be an I-told-you-so in his future.

BCG will be coming for another visit this weekend. She'll be helping a friend with a charity event and just popping in long enough to pick up her new scarf and a batch of pumpkin muffins. I must remember to ask her what was going through her mind when she drew this picture long ago.

She seems to have turned out OK, unless I'm missing something.....