A Busy Sunday Catching Up

Good grief. The last two weeks just flew by. How is it the middle of October already? It seems like it was just the 2nd, release day. That was a busy day and week. Then I had visitors for the next week (more on that tomorrow, if I have time). Which means that today was the first day I had to catch up on All the Things. Needless to say, there is still a lot to do (revisions of the second Rider novel are on the agenda for the rest of the evening), but this was what I did today.

Made pesto out of the last of the basil to come out of the garden (a week ago, with the help of pal Ellen). We pulled everything out and put the garden to bed, since the nights are turning frosty, even though the days are still pretty warm.

Pesto-making supplies....it looks like a lot, doesn't it?

All that made three little jars. But still, yum in the freezer.

 Then I Skyped with my friend Kathy (you know, until Skype died on us...I think we broke it talking about politics).

Hi Kathy!

 Then I cleaned the pellet stove, so it was ready to go when things get even colder. Messy job, and tough to do when you can't kneel, but I found a stool that helped. Look how clean!

As a break from that fun, I did some government paperwork for the shop online. (The NYS-45 quarterly form, in case you were wondering. No, I didn't think so.)

No such thing as a day off

Then I used up most of the bumper crop of eggplant (also harvested when we put the garden to bed last week) and made a huge pan of eggplant parm. I guess I know what I'm eating this week...

More yum

 Which I then ate some of, supervised by Magic the Cat.

Hey, I earned that beer!

 Guess who got to be in charge of the remote?

You want to watch WHAT?

Now I have about two hours to spend on revisions before I go to bed. Tomorrow I have an appointment before work at PT and then one after work with an orthopedic specialist, since the knee seems to have stopped improving. I'll try to post some pictures of the week of visitors after I get home, if I'm not too fried.

What did you do this Sunday? And, um, read any good books lately?

Garden's End

My plans for the weekend had been to do some cleaning, make a dump run on Saturday, go to the last farmer's market, and then spend Sunday writing. The Saturday schedule went about as expected, and I had a lovely time walking around the market, eventually coming home with these goodies:

Purple cauliflower, the last of the corn, fresh local apples, a pot of basil, organic bacon & sausage from local farmers

I came to find a large, fun box on my doorstep. Gods only know what my mail carrier thought when she delivered it. The lovely Robert Skinner, who made a special broom for me earlier in the year The Broom sent me a box full of broom-making supplies, so Blue Moon Circle could make one of our own together. He's even going to make me a "how to" video. We'll probably bless and consecrate the supplies at Samhain, even if we don't have a chance to make the broom itself until later.

Acme Broom Company--Contains 1 Flying Broom Kit

 My plans for Sunday changed when I woke up to this:

Kale with frost. Luckily, kale is hearty, and once the day warmed, it was just fine.

That's the kale, which is one of the few things left in the garden, covered with frost. It was the second serious frost of the season (and the second morning when the temps hit below 29 degrees), but it got really nice in the afternoon, so that made it Time to Put the Garden to Sleep for the Winter. I called my stalwart pal Ellen, and we spend a sunny afternoon clearing the remaining beds of debris, planting next year's garlic, and harvesting the herbs. (Plus the less appealing chores like rolling up and putting away hoses and such.) The lovely weather and good company made the work go quickly, and there is always something satisfying about having the garden all neat and tidy. The end of the season is bittersweet, but this too is part of the Wheel of the Year.

You can't see it now, but this is where the garlic will come up next year. And there's the kale, looking fine.

The fish pond, with the filter & fountain removed. A heater will keep it from freezing over later.

Lemon balm, chocolate mint, thyme, and rosemary for drying.

Miraculously, I even managed to get 2,100 words written later in the day, but boy, was I tired.

Still, it was a very satisfying weekend, for the most part. What did you do with yours? Did you put anything away for winter? Harvest anything good?

Back in the Garden(s)

As usual, I am already about 3 weeks behind on the garden. This time, however, it can mostly be blamed on the weather, which has been unrelentingly cold and rainy. At least on the days when I had the time to be outside. Thankfully, yesterday was sunny and 60 degrees, and since it was Wednesday, I wasn't working. So I went back out to the garden. Well, gardens, really. Yay!

I started by planting new herbs (rosemary, lavender, dill, and lemon thyme) in the herb patch I started last year by the back door. All of those are perennials, and I should have still had them from last year, but the brutal winter killed off everything except the chives and the chocolate mint. Still, I was pretty happy when it was done, and I pulled my Mickie Mueller magical cat flag out of the mudroom an "planted" it too.

Then I moved on to the main garden, where I finally got peas and onions into the ground.

 If you look really closely at the picture above, you can see the tiny green shoots of the onion plants. Of course, the peas below just look like an empty bed. But I know it's not!

That's one of the things about gardening that reminds me of writing. In the beginning, a garden is all about potential and hope. You put the seeds in the ground, and they don't look like much. Hell, to anyone other than you, they don't look like anything. But if all goes well, four or five months down the road, you will have a bounty of vegetables (or words) to reap. And maybe even share with others.

Speaking of others, I had some company out in the garden. The goldfish in the little pond are feeling perky (and got even more agitated when I started cleaning the pond and stirred things up).

 I also had a garter snake hanging out by the pond. (Did you know snakes can swim? Yes they can.) I'm not a big snake person (they still make me jump if I come across them unexpectedly) but garter snakes are actually very useful in the garden and outside, keeping down small pests and loosening the soil. 
[Look away if you don't like snakes!]

I was out there for about 2 1/2 hours (which is as long as I can manage without falling over) and feel like I got a reasonable amount accomplished. Now I'm only two weeks behind :-)

Season's End

One of the best (and sometimes worst) aspects of living in upstate New York is that we have Seasons. We're not one of those places (I'm looking at you, San Diego), where the weather is more or less the same most of the time, and winter means it is 50 instead of 70. Here, it can be 70 one day and 30 the next, just because it feels like it, and when the seasons change, boy howdy, do you know it.

At least it's not boring :-)

Honestly, I like having seasons. I like the way the different times of year have different energy, and different looks, all of them beautiful in their own way. Although it took becoming a Pagan and learning about the Wheel of the Year, that cycle of ebb and flow that all things follow, before I made my peace with winter. Now, although I still don't enjoy the cold and the snow, I DO love the quiet, more restful energy of the winter, when nature slows down and slumbers, and the pace of life is a little bit slower. (In my case, not until after the holiday rush at the shop, but you know what I mean.) After rushing around all year trying to keep up with the yard and garden, and summer activities, it is nice to sit on the couch with a cat or five, a mug of hot chocolate, and a book.

There are lots of signals that tell me that the summer is over, fall is here, and winter is fast approaching. The wooly bear caterpillars are everywhere, the geese honk overhead as they fly south, and the trees have shown their glorious fall colors and are already beginning to fade.

 Across the street

 Next to the back of the barn

 There's always one show-off.

But for me, I know the season is over when I finish tearing out the garden and putting it to bed for the year. That's what I did last weekend (it was really a process over a couple of weeks, but the last of it was finished this Saturday). My friend Ellen and my step-daughter's mom Jo came over, Jo mostly to supervise and keep the other two of us company, since she'd had dialysis earlier in the day. Ellen and I pulled the rest of the plants out, saving a few green tomatoes to ripen on the counter, and leaving the last bed of spinach and lettuce, which will stay alive until the first snows. Here and there is a batch of kale or parsley. Otherwise, the beds are all empty and covered, waiting for the entire process to begin again in the spring. Next year's garlic is planted, and the fountain and pump have been pulled out of the pond. It seems strangely quiet and peaceful inside the garden fence, reminding me that I too should be starting to slow down a little, and turn inward.

Do you have seasons where you are? If so, do you like them all, or only one or two? Do you try and go with the flow, or simply charge along, no matter what? Happy fall!