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| Snowflakes for the season |
The moon is full, so you know what that means. Time for another "check in" from your favorite lunatics at Thistledown Gardens.
This past month saw us put the garden to rest for the winter.
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| Harvesting carrots |
I harvested the beets and carrots. They are all packed away in the root cellar.
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| Last harvest of beet greens |
The beet greens were enjoyed as our final fresh greens of the season.
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| Garlic (left) and shallots (right) go in |
I planted my garlic and shallots. They are now tucked in under a thick layer of straw, as are the strawberry plants.
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| Bob grinding (swim goggles a big help) |
The horseradish has been dug and processed. It, too is in the root cellar. We had a couple of jars left from last year, so we didn't have to put up as much this year.
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| Log spitter put away for winter |
Bob has serviced the equipment and either stored it (log splitter and mower) or has it ready for use (snow thrower).
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| Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! |
You all heard about the snow that parts of New York received during this last month. We didn't get any of this. We're far enough from both Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, that we don't get the heavy lake effect storms so common to those areas.
We've had a little snow and some rain. The temperatures fluctuate between normal and slightly above normal for the season.
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| Cookie prep |
We made a small batch of cookies to have ready for the Yule season. Our spicy cookies need time to ripen before we dive into them.
We've both been preparing for our gift exchange. Bob has ordered and received my nice chocolates. I'm nearly finished knitting his sweater, the 2022 edition. For our joint gift, we chose to order several Audubon Nature guides.
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| Our set of new nature guides |
After using several types of guides, we decided that we prefer these, so we chose the ones of interest to us. Now we have a nice assortment. These will be a mainstay of our winter resting and rebuilding season.
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| Bob's award and gift |
Bob was honored to receive an award (and a nice dinner) recognizing his volunteer work as an advocate for alternative energy sources and helping people to save money on their energy bills. Way to go, Bob.
After three years, COVID has finally found our house. (A gift bestowed by one of Bob's coworkers.) As I write this, we are in the midst of the struggle. We got, I suppose, moderate cases. It's particularly bothersome for me, because of my latent asthma. I'll be glad to stop coughing my brains out!
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| Oh what fun! |
During this down time, we've been laying around, reading and I've been working on Bob's sweater.
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| Another ball of energy |
We look forward to regaining our health so we can really enjoy our time of rest. Personally, I'm eager to have enough energy to sit behind my harp again.
So, take care of yourselves, especially with the holiday activities. Remember, there's a lot of junk out there, and some people could be more ill affected than you realize. It's the season to think about others, after all. Enough said?
Change your routine with this seasonal change. Hunker down like the plants and animals. Let go of some of the busy-ness. The benefits may surprise you.
Till next time,
Kathleen and Bob
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| Happy holidays, whatever they may be |
