Nature | November 2025

 Here are my nature photos from November. I don't have many pictures of insects this month. I have very many pictures of Autumn leaf colors. Right before November was over we had a big snow storm and I have some pictures of the snow. 

 My favorite picture must be the Cypress cones. (I would like confirmation that they are indeed cypress cones. Cypress is not a tree that I have learned how to identify.) I had so much fun with those cones. The pieces of the cone break off and inside are little pockets of amber sap sealed in small cells. When the membrane is broken the perfume is intoxicating. I sat on the ground breaking open sap sacks and smelling them for a good 15 minutes. The scent is so refreshing and head clearing. It's piney and resinous and clean. It reminded me of Frankincense essential oil.

Anyway, here are the pictures. Do you have a favorite?

My camera is not doing justice to these beautiful colors. You had to be there to see it!

I saw this beetle at the park.

This close up picture of a Burning Bush is my second favorite.

My favorite picture.

I have a story to go with this picture:
I found this green bug and thinking that our pet jumping spider could eat it I put it in our terrarium.

The spider didn't eat it. Many days later I caught a fly to feed the spider. A few moments after I had put the fly in the terrarium I saw that this green bug had stolen it! I was quite unhappy with this green bug. Do you know how hard I had worked to catch that fly alive for the spider?

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

 

After all the pumpkins were processed I had 2 quarts of pumpkin seeds. If I only have a few seeds, I toss them with oil and salt and roast them. With this many seeds the effort of boiling them in salt water is worth the trouble. 

Step 1. Boil the seeds for 10 minutes in salt water: 1 TBS. of salt per cup of water. 

Step 2. Dry seeds well on a towel.

Step 3 +4.

Toss with a small amount of oil and roast in a single layer at 350° for 20ish minutes stirring a few times.

Allow to cool a few minutes before digging in. 

As you can see everyone here has been enjoying the bounty!

Thanksgiving Season And Pumpkin Pie Recipe!

 

I have so much to be grateful for!

1 Thessalonians 5:18 

 In every thing give thanks: 

for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus

concerning you.

Every year I make a turkey dinner sometime before Thanksgiving. We just can't wait!

This year our menu was a little extra than most years.

We had:

Turkey 
Mashed potatoes 
Gravy
Sweet potato casserole 
Green bean casserole 
Corn
Cranberry fluff 
Canned cranberry relish 
Pumpkin pie

Our favorite pumpkin pie recipe is the Libby's Famous Pumpkin Pie recipe. I am going to write it here for easy retrieval.

Libby's Famous Pumpkin Pie 
1 1/2 cups Sugar 
1 tsp. Salt
2 tsp. Cinnamon 
1 tsp. Ginger 
1/2 tsp. Cloves 
4 eggs
1 large can of Pumpkin Puree or 3 1/2 cups Home-processed pumpkin 
2 cans Evaporated Milk 

2 Unbaked Pie Shells (Pie crust recipe HERE)

Mix together sugar and spices. 

Blend in eggs, and then pumpkin. 

Slowly stir in the evaporated milk.

Pour evenly into prepared pie shells.

Bake at 425° F. for 15 minutes. Turn down the oven to 350° F. Bake for 40-50 minutes longer.

Cool for 2 hours before serving.

Nature In September

My favorite picture in this batch is the frog. Mostly because it was a funny situation. The Comma Butterfly picture is close second favorite. Which picture do like the best from this month? What are your favorite things about this time of year?

Our last Monarch caterpillar went into it's chrysalis. It crawled onto our door jam to make it's transformation.

Metamorphosis!

We took it outside to let it's wings finish drying.
 

I saw a whole bunch of turkeys during my morning walk this month. I couldn't get very close to take a picture. That is why this picture is grainy. I was surprised to see so many birds!

I was sad to see this snake crushed one morning.

I was amazed to find dozens of these caterpillars crawling down our road one morning. I have no idea where they are going or why they are going together or where they came from, but I took a short video clip to show you.

A lot of mornings I take a picture of sunrise down at the end of our road where it joins the highway. I can tell the sun is working it's way in a southerly direction across the eastern horizon. Sunrise doesn't happen before 6:30 anymore either. 

Our resident Garden Spider is getting quite fat!

We acquired a jumping spider this month and are keeping him in a terrarium. Here he is eating a fly.

This is one of the frogs that was hanging out in our RV water tank. I got three of them to jump out when I refilled the tank last time. The stinkers! I had heard them singing down there in their echo-y chamber so I wasn't too surprised to find them blocking the water inlet pipe.

This Comma Butterfly came to sample our watermelon mess. I don't see Comma or Question Mark Butterflies too often. I was glad that I had my camera handy.

Seasons are changing! From the later sunrises to the goldenrod blooming, Autumn is here!

Pumpkin Pie Season!

 

We live in an area where a lot of pumpkins are grown. Most are grown for the Libby's brand. Meaning they are not the decorative type, but the really good for pies type. 

I was able to get my hands on this one a month ago. The consignment store in town had a few of these Libby pumpkins out in front of their building with a free sign. I don't know the story of how they got there. I like to fancy that they fell off the truck. Honestly, that is because I have a very poor imagination and can't come up with a more creative story.

Last week I cut the pumpkin up and processed it. I cooked it until soft and scooped out the pulp. Then I blended the pulp in a food processors until it was smooth. I froze most of the pumpkin puree to use later. With some of it I made a large pumpkin pie. And, I roasted the seeds for a snack.

I am so embarrassed to show this picture because of the aluminum pie pan. Not only is it ugly but someone might think that I used a store bought crust- oh, the shame!

I didn't! I didn't! The crust is homemade and the pie pan is salvaged. I wanted to use this pie pan because it is so big. You can't tell by this picture, but this is a 11.5" pie pan. I multiplied the recipe by a small percentage to fill this pan. 

And to bring this post full circle: I used the Libby's pumpkin pie recipe. It is our family's favorite.