Preparing for the seasonal changes

is what we've been trying to accomplish the last few weeks.


Last Sunday before we went on the park walk, DH changed out three storm doors from screens to glass. These storm doors and windows were installed in 1959 and have treated us well. They are aluminum and we always went with products that were made by Alcoa, since that is where my father was a tool and die maker.



Each day this week I've been looking out the window behind the TV, or out the window by the washer in the basement to see this glorious maple midget. It's only about three and a half feet tall but bushy because it grows through the state cyclone fence and has been cut off several years. With these predicted fronts going through this weekend, leaves will be dropping sooner than we desire, but on schedule with Mother Nature.



Just up the cyclone fence line, the honeysuckle is again blooming in October, just as it did last year when I posted it. You can tell the sky wasn't very blue yesterday and it surely doesn't show blue this morning.



DH wanted me to take this shot through one of the dining room windows this morning of the well (and thermometer showing 52 drippy degrees)with the maples, pine and witch hazel across the fence and the lilac tinging color change just outside the window.

It's the Saturday sky of October. Though not the Saturday sky I've been showing the last four Saturdays during our leaf peeking, this one has brought us 1.2" rain so far. We were 3/4" below average, so some rain is needed. We do not need what is to be mixed with more rain on Monday and Tuesday, s---,brought to us by a deeply seated Alaskan cold front plunging into the middle of the Gulf of Mexico before it's done.

Yesterday I picked spinach and swiss chard for a yummy potato/swiss chard soup recipe we enjoyed at Sarah's in July. Since there have been two decent frosts on the garden so far, the beets have had time to sweeten and I pulled those yesterday. We savored beets with dinner, plus I had two quarts left over for the freezer. These beets were from a four year old partially used seed packet. I prefer to save unused seeds and plant them another year. There are also certain seeds I harvest and plant the next year. There haven't been any saved seeds that haven't germinated except two free carrot packets.