Winter is Coming

This morning I awoke to find the needle on the thermometer hovering right around 28 degrees.   Brrrr!  They said that it would be a cold night both last night and again tonight.  Whoever "they" are -- apparently they're right. 

Les left for California early Sunday morning.  Just a few short hours went by before I realized that I missed him already.  I wasn't sure what to do with myself on Sunday.  So I took a nap and watched movies.  Sounded like a good idea. 

Then later that afternoon my friend Joelle, her mom Yolande and I took a drive up Highway 12.  I've already written about how spectacular Highway 12 is and this day was no exception.  We turned off of the road just before Stonewall to see the elk.  Joelle told me about a couple of times she drove up that road to see literally thousands of elk gathering to "sort things out" about who was going to be with whom this season... if you get my drift. 

I think we could have gone up a few weeks earlier and had more success because we saw only one herd of elk.  Standing in the valley before us and quite some distance away, was a group of about 30-35 elk.  They stood in a very tight circle and standing off to one side was a magnificent buck.  Things had already been sorted out as far as he was concerned.  He was keeping his herd together and from what we saw, there was nothing to dispute.  This was his herd and that was that.

As we drove further up the valley we saw many groups of deer and a couple groups of turkeys.  Now what do you call a group of turkeys anyway?  A herd?  A gaggle?  A troupe?  That's what I think I'll call it -- a troupe of turkeys. 

Unfortunately I was not able to get a good picture of the elk and only a so-so picture of some deer.  Too bad, too.  My camera has died and all I have is my iPhone to shoot all of my pictures with.  It's good in a pinch, but it sure doesn't have the quality that my camera had.

Regardless, the fall leaves were spectacular.  The serenity of the mountains was calming.  Watching Mother Nature do her thing is just something I've missed for so long.