Happy Thanksgiving!

How can you gaze upon these noble beasts and still eat them?! They look a little sad, don't they? Kudos to all you vegetarians and vegans. The turkeys thank you. Happy day!

Not the owls again

Okay, okay, I'm getting a little obsessed, I know, with the owls but I had to take this photo of Hootie sitting in a 20 mph wind and his little ear tufts are blowing, too. (The ear tufts are feather, not horns.) They came in to roost about 6:30 AM this morning and both of them sat first in the Russian Olive outside our bedroom window. They had a little altercation which might be owl mating. Then Hooter sat and hooted for a while then flew on to her tree. This is the male, Hootie. He is smaller. Hooter is female, she is bigger. (I found this out on my trusty Wikipedia.) Great Horned Owls are found all over from the Arctic to South American. They are not an endangered species. They mate this time of year and nest in January and February. Those are going to be some cold chicks! The hooting this morning, we think, has to do with the mating.  For two days Hooter didn't come home. We saw her in a neighbor's lone tree Sunday morning which is about 4 miles from us as the owl flies.  She came back this morning.They sit and sleep all day in the trees and fly out low over the sage brush right after sundown and come back right before sunrise. They have quite the wing span. Awesome creatures!

Writing Mysteries

I'm blogging today about writing mysteries as a guest on Paty Jager's blog at http://www.patyjager.blogspot.com/.  I talk about my next book, Designer Detective, which will be published on Amazon about December 1.  Click on the link to go to her site. Thanks!

Owl update

The owls are still with us. Today they're nesting together in the Russian Olive tree in the pouring rain. They have their heads ducked under a tree limb. There really are owls in this tree. They are hard to see.  We are getting needed rain and maybe snow. It's a good day to spend with a good book.

All Souls Day

He seems to think I'm bothering him.

 The owls are back! Great Horned Owls with golden eyes.

There really are two owls in this tree

Almost as big as his mom

Hammin it up again

Today we commemorate the All Faithful Departed. Latinos celebrate the Day of the Dead. When I lived in Mexico it was the day people went to the graveyard and cleaned the graves and prayed for the departed and remembered them. Bakeries make cute skeleton and skull pastries. This is one of my favorite holiday times of the year. The weather is changing, leaves are blowing around the yard, ghouls and goblins sneak around in the night. Yesterday was All Saints Day, especially celebrated in the Catholic and Episcopal churches where we remember the saints. Then there was All Hallows Eve. This year it was pretty quiet here.No trick or treaters in our neighborhood. But we do have -- OWLS!  The owl I kept throwing stones at in the tree to scare him away is back. With his mate!  Hootie and Hooter Great Horned Owls have taken up residence and we have declared an uneasy truce. I watch them. They watch back. It wasn't until this morning that I saw both of them. You have to be looking for them to realize they are in the trees. I warn them about trying to get the chickens or cats. The bird book says they hunt up to rabbit size rodents. They better stick to rodents. I include the latest photos of Blitzen. He's almost as tall as his mother. He is 7 months old, and the black in his coat is getting blacker. He likes carrots especially.