Into the Wild Wood and Home Again

  9-25, now affectionately known as "Dolly Parton Day"-- why not? Let's live a life of compassionate joy.  There's just so damned much to be depressed about, and people are hurting all over-- literally and figuratively. But the sun still comes out. There was a lovely dragonfly I spotted yesterday. Flowers are blooming, bees are still collecting pollen, and it feels almost ungrateful to be walking around in a dark cloud.  I need to do better. We all need each other to do better. Let's live loudly, boisterously, unapologetically taking up as much space as we can, lifting others up and bounding down the path towards whatever thing it is that brings us to a happy moment.  Have a good day, friends. Make it a good day. Spread a little love. C Dolly and friends..." Light of a Clear Blue Morning "

It is 31 degrees, light frost-- I am not sure if the covers worked, but we'll see. At any rate, it's rather chilly, inside and out. G is going in a bit later, so he vacuumed the pellet stove out, and it's doing its job nicely, albeit later than usual. It's hard to believe it's supposed to be 70 later. Ah, fall. The documentary last evening was good because Bishop Barron does a nice job of weaving in Catholic history, faith, and the architecture of the cathedrals in France. It was good to go out and see it, and it was equally good to be home by 6:45, at which time I grabbed dinner and watched Jeopardy, flipped through some mundane stuff on the TV (all the shows I like on Britbox and Netflix won't have new episodes for a couple more weeks), and went to bed at 9:45. This cold is dragging me down a bit, but I manage.  Work is fine, kids are okay, but there's very little to call a spark lately. I don't know if they are all sick, or I have a whole lot of medio...

Chilly start to the day at 33 degrees before sunrise. I'm glad G covered the squash (though I have scant hope they'll make it anyhow, but we will try). Holly and I picked the last of the green tomatoes, a few green beans (which made it into last night's shepherd's pie), a lonely cucumber, and then G and Holly went out later on to pick the small green apples. We are not sure if they are large crabbies or small something else. The tree appeared in the lilac hedge and it's flourishing; the apples are very tart but make awesome applesauce. So, I have two huge bags of those to process soon. And I will! The plan is to pick the other apples this weekend and maybe at least some of the pears. We have pears. We have thousands of pears. If you live close by, come pick some. There's far too many to even begin to imagine.  I need to clip herbs to make herbed butter for the freezer. I have a tiny half-row of carrots to pick-- later. There's no real rush with carrots. The ...

Apparently, I jumped the gun, and today is the first day of autumn. Either way, it was 40 degrees this morning, and it looks to be one of those lovely early-fall days: cool in the morning, the fog burns off, and lovely/warm/sunny in the afternoon. I sure hope so. I'm contemplating ditching my chore list after work and instead, picking apples with Holly outside. We can't get 'em all (I'm too short), but we could get some picked. And I will definitely cover the squashes, as the night-time temps are expected to be a bit too close to frost for my comfort (or theirs, to be honest).  This silly head cold is making my brain mushy, which is truly inconvenient. I'll muddle through, though. Today, it's Marlowe and Raleigh, and possibly jumping into Spenser as well. The APLang kids will have enough to do, too. We have an essay to read/discuss, and there is a small AP practice thing I need to set up for them. Ah, the joys of working on multiple choice in a digital format. Y...

The yo-yo of night-time temps: today, I woke up to 49 degrees. Which is notable, not only because the last few nights have hovered around 34, but that yesterday's high was 50. So be it. And it's officially autumn, the equinox having passed while we were busy being cold and damp. Thank goodness for the pellet stove.  I likely will not light it today; G wants to do a thorough cleaning (he's been "meaning to" since June), and I hope he does that tonight after dinner. Cooler days are with us, but the forecast is for days in the 60s, so we'll manage anyhow if he doesn't do it right away. He's got to replace the door seal, too, so it'll likely become a project.  Today, after work, I'll be cutting up tomatoes. Not the green ones; those are still on the vine. And the squashes are still hanging in there. And I hope they continue to do so, because I have other forms of house chores to attend to, and I managed to get a touch of Holly's cold, so I feel...

Heaven help us, 'tis 34 degrees, friends. I need to find some old tablecloth to cover the squash--not that there's a lot of hope, but I have a couple of mini-butternuts (yeah, about the size of a double shot glass), and a couple of four-inch zukes out there. G says we should rescue the rest of the green tomatoes, but there aren't that many. Which, to be fair, is a good thing-- Meg, Holly, and I went out and picked all the ripe ones, found a good bit of green beans, and snagged a few apples. I want to make a pie later today. But, because we don't spray our trees, there is a little more effort required in order to cut off the bruises and bug/bird nibbles. No matter, it'll warm the house up. G says that he'll fill up the pellet stove today for a test run. I think that's a good idea; let's make sure it works, eh? ugh. The woes. It's getting old, but we've replaced various (all?) of the parts here and there. In the meantime, I have a new plaid fleece ...