Busy as a...... Flutist!! And more 'Fall Gifts'

I love my life as a musician. Right now it is exactly where I want to be. I have a full studio of fabulous students, with only a few available lesson slots left. And it's still September!! I've been practicing hard, preparing for 3 performances in November. I'm playing 2 full recitals in Ontario, and then I'll be performing in Canmore, Alberta, as part of the Vic Lewis Festival. Exciting!! I'm very much looking forward to it. The past couple years I've spent most of my practice time practicing technique- scales, scales, scales and more scales, and I have to say that it's pretty nice to feel that all that work is taking my playing to the next level. I LOVE playing my flute, and I am especially enjoying being able to play the more virtuostic technical passages with ease, and musicality. Love it.

Around the Coach House we are in the process of switching into fall mode. The straggly summer plants have been replaced by gloriously huge mums and there's a new mat at the front door to greet all of my students. Although I have to admit that the mat makes me pretty happy every time I come home too!! It could have something to do with my love of birds, and the fact that the new mat has a super cute Chickadee on it!!
As you can see in the above photo, there have also been more instances of 'fall gifts' around the Coach House. I found a perfect peanut, still in it's shell, nestled in with the petunia's yesterday. And today, when I went out to photograph the mat, I found this: Right outside our front door!! I'm pretty convinced that it is the same white bellied grey squirrel who is leaving all of the goodies, as I heard him rustling in the tree behind me while I was taking the pictures!

Fall Gifts

I know that Fall is just around the corner, but it sure doesn't feel like it with the 33 degree weather we are having today! Still, the animals know that the seasons are starting to change. The first big flock of geese flew over our little coach house this morning while we were drinking our coffee and listening to the radio. Then, on Jeremy's way out the door to work, we discovered this present left in our plant, presumably left by the cute, grey, white bellied squirrel that quickly scrambled up the tree when the door opened.
"Hee, hee". Jeremy and I laughed about this seemingly random storage place for an apple. Imagine my surprise when I went down to do some laundry later on and discovered this at the bottom of our front steps!
I especially love the little nibble marks on the top left corner. I am even more amused at the scene pictured in my mind, of the little squirrel dragging along this massive loaf of french bread, so pleased with his bounty. I'll be giggling about that all day while I'm cleaning house. I'll just have to make sure the image doesn't pop into my mind while we're playing cards tonight. It is not a good thing to immediately follow an "I'm all in" with uncontrolled giggles!!