Fall leaves

Umbriel likes to follow how the colors of our maple change, so I brought a few leaves up for him to play with. They'll dry up and crumble in a few days, but they are very pretty while they last.


Umbriel with maple leaves.

Fall Equinox

Actually fall equinox is tomorrow, but as today is a rare sunny day, we wanted to show how pretty our maple is. The picture was taken at 1:30, which means the sun is about as high as it's going to get. From the shadow of the house on the other side of the street you can see that the sun is not very high.


Umbriel is enjoying a rare sunny and warm September day on the balcony.

"Warm" means 14 C (57 F).

Making amends

Sampo is playing alone with his picachu...


... when Deimos appears on the scene.

Sampo: What now? Do you have more monsters? I am prepared. Picachu can handle them all!

Deimos: Ummm... hmmm... umm.. I am sorry I sank your fleet last week...



Deimos: I have found Haitula's magic woodpecker feather...


Deimos: It can grant you one wish. Close your eyes and wish real hard!


Sampo: ... Done... May I open my eyes now?


Deimos: Gee, it really worked!

Sampo: A bicycle! Just what I wished for!


It must be a magic bicycle as Sampo can balance immediately...


But Haitula is not quite happy that Deimos has taken his magic feather.

Haitula: That feather is supposed to be used for healing. I did not even know it can grant wishes.

Deimos: Ummmm.... it only grants wishes in the hands of a little demon who is genuinely sorry. That does not happen often.

Haitula: In any case I want it back. Thank you.


This time the story has a very happy ending

There is one happy little hobbit...


... on a brand new bike.



And Deimos gave the feather back to Haitula. And Haitula promised that Deimos may borrow it another time if he needs to make amends.

Sea Battle

As Sampo is still dressed in the sailor suit he decided he wants to play with ships.


Sampo made some paper ships and even a paper hat.

Sampo: My fleet is ready...



Sampo: I'm Admiral Nelson about to start the battle of Trafalgar...



Sampo: Nelson is getting his ships into position...


Deimos seems to have his own ideas about playing with water and ships.

Deimos: This is King Kong. He needs a ship to sail to New York.

Sampo: That's just a baby gorilla.

Deimos: Then it is King Kong's son, Prince Kong. He needs to sail to New York to find his lost father.


But the fleet does not seem to be quite adequate for transporting a gorilla - not even a baby gorilla...




Sampo: Go away! You are sinking my ships!



Deimos: Sigh. It appears that Prince Kong has to return to his island...



Deimos: ... He'll never find his lost father.



Sampo: It appears that Nelson lost this battle.


But soon Sampo has new ideas in his mind...

Sampo: I'm a famous diver who is hunting for sunken treasure ships...



Sampo: There are lots of sunken ships in the Bermuda Triangle...



Sampo: Enormous treasures in sunken pirate ships are just waiting to be found...


It appears that the imagination of these little ones has no bounds...

Early Fall Colors

It's already the 7th of the "Fall Month" and fall colors are starting to appear...


Umbriel: Look! Our maple is starting to change color again.


Niks and Naks wanted to go outside to check if their new fall outfits match the fall colors.

Naks: Look! The ink caps on our back yard are starting to turn into black slime!

Niks: Great! We can make lots of good potions out of them!



Niks: Look! We match the fall colors!

Naks: We definitely do!



Niks: Look! Baby fly agarics! These have surfaced quite recently.



Naks: Look! The fireweeds have turned into fire!



Niks: The creeper is quite fiery, too!