Swans return

With apologies to all who still have jobs, Monday is the best day of the week. With double apologies, the reason is that all of you go to work. 55, sunny and light winds makes for a really, really nice day if you are dressed properly for those conditions. I was more than willing to share but the truth is there weren't very many others out there enjoying today's wonderful late October day.

Here's an illustration of why Monday works so well for me. The giant inflatable jack-o'-lantern that I featured yesterday has proprietors that work. When I rode past it today the air pump was not operating and the yard ornament was lying in an orange pile in that front yard. Next door to that event was the display that I really wanted to post yesterday. The problem was yesterday the people who own this house were home, the garage door was open and they were putzing around in the yard. I didn't feel like introducing myself and asking for permission to photograph this nice pumpkin display.So instead I went past again today and today the homeowners are at work. I just stopped at the end of the driveway and photographed at my leisure. Which is pretty much what I have plenty of, leisure. That's six pumpkins and some orange flowers. There is another small pumpkin in the yard to make seven but its placement at the end of that brick wall moved it out of the shot that I wanted.

I rode all the way out to Highway 96 today and as I started on the return trip past the series of lakes I discovered large white birds at Sucker Lake. It was new white birds, however, not the ones that hung around out there all summer. This is the fall large white birds, the swans. There were seven on Sucker Lake. I got a couple of pictures that I was pretty satisfied with but when I came to lake Vadnais I found these two posing with a gaggle of geese just off the parking lot point.All that talk about a freeze that I heard from Sven yesterday turned out to be incorrect. Instead we had a small amount of moisture on the street this morning indicating a light overnight sprinkle. The yard display flowers are still doing just fine. This one is quite near to those grasses featured a couple of days ago with GRider.It was the GRider who pointed these out to me. I still haven't found the one she described to me but I have found another one. There is a new trend in Halloween yard decorations, really, really large cobwebs. Yard size cobwebs.In France this evening FC Nantes has travelled to Boulogne and played another nil nil draw. A nil nil draw on the road is a significantly better result than the nil nil draw they played at home last Friday. In any case, FC Nantes holds its place in the table. They play again on Friday, home to fourth place Chateauroux. Meanwhile Team France has scored matching 2-0 home victories over Romania and Luxembourg in qualifying matches for Euro 2012. France holds first place in Group D after having played four of ten qualifying matches. To this point there have been no controversial hand balls in any of France's matches.