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| Autumn in our ravine |
Did you see the moon last night or this morning? It was clear and very lovely here. We have now left the month of Song Time/Falling Leaves Time behind for another year.
Our weather has been warmer than usual, but the heat has come on a couple of times. That's fine. We're still trying to use up our fuel oil supply before the boiler is removed. It's been a mix of dry and rainy weather, but the real fall rains haven't begun yet. On some of the nice days I was able to get all of my windows washed. I divided the job up into three half days. That was much more manageable than one long day. On my next rainy day I should plan to get my furniture oiled in preparation for woodstove season.
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| Old wood chips need to be moved |
We've begun our autumn garden clean up. That's always a big job; plants to pull down, structures to remove and store.
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| Tomato plants coming down |
This year we're "clipping and dropping" a lot, so it will compost in place. We are covering it with old chips, leaves and/or straw as well. All of the beds will have a mulch covering for winter.
This time of year people always ask me if our garden is all done. (Actually they begin asking this on Labor Day.) There's still plenty out there. Here's a quick survey:
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| A variety of beets |
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| Carrots |
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| Celery |
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| Swiss chard |
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| Kale and parsley |
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| Fall lettuce |
All of these plants thrive in the cool weather, even after a frost.
We have picked all of our apples and pears. We have bins of apples in the root cellar and laundry room. The pantry has bins of tomatoes ripening.
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| Red Anjou Pears |
Bob's annual vacation was last week. We spent more than half of it working outside. On one very nice day we travelled to my hometown (two hours north to Lake Ontario) to check on my mother's grave site and marker. After spending some time at the cemetery, we ate a picnic lunch by the lake. It was a very nice, relaxing day. Another fun activity was going to the big used book sale in Ithaca. We got a load of books by our favorite authors, some CDs and a couple of DVDs, as well. There's lots of good reading awaiting us this winter. (Oh, alright, we have already begun reading some of them.)
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| Bob works on the rails |
The porch project is finished!!
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| The finished porch |
It cost more and took longer than we anticipated, but we're happy with the end results, and feel it was worth it.
That's what we've been up to here at Thistledown. We're looking forward to shutting down the garden and taking time to enjoy the rest of the autumn before hunkering down for the winter.
A glowing and harmonious autumn to you all.
Kathleen and Bob
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| Nasturtiums in the garden |
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| Viburnum in our woods |
