October Fly-By

Lovely, busy week. Lots of things to take my attention at work. John was home so the household was well tended. We went out to dinner in the 'burg Wednesday night. Our favorite restaurant there (Sogno di Vino) has "date night" on Wednesdays and Sundays with a special menu and special prices so it's a nice break in the week. The near calamity with John's car tags was averted when they arrived on Wednesday. He made the 2 mile trip to collect our farm share vegetables that afternoon and thwarted Murphy and his laws. Despite traveling to and from the airport and freewheeling about town for the nearly three months the tags have been out of date, it would be that 10 minute round trip down the road when some sheriff would be out keeping the peace on Miller Bay Road and pull him over for those all-but-flashing law-breaking tags. But the tags arrived and we're law-abiding citizens once again.

Autumn is simply brilliant up here. The temperatures have been in the high 50s - low 60s and it promises to be a dry week. The moon was full this week. Yesterday, the sun was shining and the air was cool and refreshing.Finally the trees have turned colors. We put away the furniture on the deck and the porch and attempted to clean the gutters in preparation for winter. We'll have to get a 30-foot ladder that feels secure or some daredevil with a cherry picker to clean those on the second floor. I could ignore them and pretend that they are in fine working order except for the small plants growing out of two places. It's fairly obvious that regular maintenance should be done regularly.

John planted several rows of garlic and shallots to quietly grow during the winter. We're harvesting the last of everything else in the garden. Every year we learn more about the needs of growing things up here. His next project will be to get some gutters up on the shed and rain-collecting barrels attached to them (before the rain starts in earnest). My day will involve a massage (therapeutic), retrieving some new prescription sunglasses that have arrived, and taking a final look for dog-related Christmas-themed items. Tonight, a friend and I are going to decorate a small Christmas tree for auction at a fundraiser and its theme is "Santa Paws". And I will continue to work on my menagerie of chickens that have taken over the sewing area upstairs. I have 22 of the delightful little creatures waiting now to be stuffed with lavender, stitched closed, and eyes attached. Then they will be sent near and far, tucked into boxes at Christmas.

The furnace just kicked in again. It was 64 degrees in the house when we came downstairs this morning. That's my threshold for supplemental warm air. Time for breakfast and then on with the day!