We have been having cool nights for the past several weeks. It was lovely to leave the windows open to get the fresh air, until the minions arrived, those nasty stink bugs that swarm in absolutely EVERYWHERE! So, the windows have stayed closed for the past week, and we gave in and had the house and garage sprayed last weekend.
The garden has a few more things growing, especially tomatoes. I cooked a bunch of them up into pasta sauce today.
There are still pumpkins and butternut squash growing, along with kale and chard as well. The pumpkin plant must be a pie pumpkin, as the squashes are fairly small. In fact, I wasn't sure which would give me more space to carve, this little pumpkin or my giant tomato?
I had disappointing harvests of apples, pears and green beans this year. I'm not sure what happened with the apples. Most of the pear blossoms froze, and the rabbits are still getting into my garden somewhere and eating off my beans.
Just this past weekend, I was surprised to find a rose blooming in my flower garden! This bed has been completely devastated by the deer this summer. I didn't have any flowers after the spring ones. You can see that everything behind it is eaten off. I brought it in for safe keeping, and to enjoy its lovely fragrance.
Over Labor Day weekend, J couldn't come home, so we went up to Pittsburgh to spend the day with her. We got to see her throwing some clay mugs at the studio she is interning at. She also took us to both of her workplaces - an Asian grocery (where we used her employee discount to stock up our pantry) and a tea shop (where we enjoyed a pot of Moroccan Mint Tea.) We went out for dinner and hung out at her apartment for a while. It was nice to get a little glimpse of her life right now.
Early Fall is the time that I have to clean up the black walnuts out of the chicken yard. We bought a used John Deere Trail Gator ("Ally") this summer, which made disposing of the walnuts super easy. I just parked it outside of the chicken yard, dumped buckets full of the nuts into the bed, then backed it up to the woods and dumped it. The young hens are still not laying, by the way.
This is also the time when I spray and weed around the house and the pool for the second time. Here is before and after:
We never opened the pool this year and have decided to take it down next Spring.
And finally, for fun, I attended the Great Gatsby Gala Fundraiser at our local library with a friend. I decided to forgo the gown from last year that made me somewhat uncomfortable all night and went with men's wear this year. It was a fun time out with my friend. AND I won another basket of goodies!
Happy Fall, Y'all!
