Hey...it's suddenly fall !

The caption on this guy says "Harvest Man".I liked it so much, I made it the photo on my husbands Facebook page.   (It kinda looks like him in his winter beard) lol


  38 degrees here this morning when I got up at 6 AM.  Guess it's truly officially autumn.  It's quickly becoming that time when I start bustling around, tying to get the herbs in and dried,  checking every little thing every day, because the things that are left in the garden from the first planting are starting to peter out, slowly but surely.  I think they're just so grateful to not be in the blistering heat that they are actually growing happily and getting a second wind.  It's nowhere near time for our first frost...and the green beans that we planted a few weeks ago are flourishing...all healthy looking and lush, and loaded with flowers. And so are the snow peas--over 6 inches high now.  Driving up the highways towards the local towns, you can see fields littered with bright orange pumpkins, cornfields in stages of destruction and soybeans turning that tell-tale yellowish green they get before finally drying on the vines. The general tone of the world changes perceptibly when you live in the rural parts of this country. (Probably every country). Savvy homemakers are decorating their doors with autumn themes, cornstalk scarecrows are leaning up against trees and garage doors, beckoning a time of slowing down and easing into winter. Kids are all back in school and it's amazing how just a few weeks time changes things so much. 

 I love this time of year.  Mostly because it means that the hard work of summer is behind me, but also because it's a time of R&R..both for me and for the land. The fruit trees are starting to shed their leaves,  the tulip poplars are starting to turn, and even my little red maple is going through changes.  My potted flowers on the back deck are still in full bloom, even the stalwart geraniums are bobbing their petal laden heads in the cool crisp mornings.  Because we finally got some rain after the drought of the summer, everything is really lush a little later than normal. It's just beautiful out there. I as thinking I need to take my camera out and get some photos. Maybe on my break today.  lol


  I have my list in progress  for this Monday. It includes laundry and bread and all the normal daily things that need doing.  I might also take a run into town and run a couple of errands. Or I may not. Depends on how it goes.  I had a pretty full weekend and am a little tired today. Not that I really did much yesterday, except to run my nephew home (45 minutes away), but that was something, I guess. I also cleaned the chicken coop and put in new straw and worked in the garden some, harvested more lemon grass and tomatoes and peppers and carrots.  Pulled the last of the first carrot planting and had several really good looking ones too. VERY happy with carrots this year...

  I spent Thursday cleaning my house and getting the guest room cleaned up so that my nephew could sleep in there--and that meant washing and changing bed linens, vacuuming, dusting.  The rest of the house too. I roasted a turkey breast I had in the freezer that needed using, thinking I would use it for turkey sandwiches for the picnic, and since it was cooked and I was tired, used some of it for supper that night too. (There was plenty). I made some mashed potatoes and gravy and stir fried some Chinese cabbage with onion, garlic and carrot in it and called it a meal. I hard boiled a dozen eggs or so to make deviled eggs with Saturday morning before we left. Finished things up on Friday and then my son came home and stopped on his way to get his cousin, so I didn't have to drive down and get him. I made a big spaghetti dinner with salad and garlic bread for our supper and we sat around the table for a couple of hours, talking, laughing and eating.  It was great. I got up early Saturday morning and put the finishing touches on the picnic lunch to take to the powwow . We met my youngest brother and his wife and daughter there, and watched the dancers and toured the teepees and had a really good time. It was Sky's first time at a powwow and she loved it. She bought a little hand drum and  we all had a ball. It was a cool and windy day and the dancers were superb and the drums were a group called Na Ma Wo Chi  from North Carolina. I bought 2 of their CD's that they sell to help finance their trips to powwows around the country. 

   This is a fancy shawl dancer, and she danced several times. It's hard to get pictures of the dancers, because you can't take pictures during the sacred ceremonies. But she posed for us.

 This is one of the teepees that came with the travelers, and here is another one-much bigger, that you could look inside and see how they are set up..with a campfire in the center and roomy enough to sleep probably 20 people in a pinch.

So, that was our exciting weekend. And now the boy is back off to Iowa, the nephew is back home, the husband is back at work...and I am sitting here enjoying the silence and serenity that comes with living in the country. Thinking about all the things I have to do, looking at my list and wondering how much of it I can put off. lol  I need to get looking for a source to buy some organic dry beans, I have decided to cook and can some more varieties besides just pintos and black beans. Maybe some  Great Northerns  or some kidney beans or adzukis. I don't know about those though...they are a little fragile after they're cooked sometimes.  And I have never seen them canned...hmmm....


  Guess I've stalled about as long as I can here. lol  Time to get out of these pajamas and get some things going. It's a cool 64 degrees in the house this morning..makes it easy to just stay snuggled up in this fleecy robe.

 Have a grand Monday, everyone!!!!




Namaste.