The end of summer

Well, it was coming anyway... the end of summer and fresh local produce. Our CSA baskets stopped coming with our last basket at the end of september. Oh, there are still remnants of veggies in the gardens ... like these grape tomatoes. I didn't like them much...which is why they are still there. They are an attractive color and shape, but were an unappetizing flavor and had horrible mouth-feel. They are like an undercooked potato...without the crunch. I wish I knew what kind they were, so I can be sure not to grow them again. Unfortunately they came in a variety pack with no specfic name lables. Ah, well not every experiment is a winner.


The leaves are still on some trees, and the colors are fabulous still... as long as you appreciate muted colors. I think spring and fall seasons have the best colors. Even in the rain... or maybe I should say especially in the rain. The colors are more saturated (he,he) in the light conditions found on rainy days.




Alex has been working hard putting the gardens to bed for the winter. He has done an excellent job on the shade garden, but a trip to DC interrupted the work on the sunny garden. Barely taking the time to change from work clothes to outside clothes, Alex rushes out the door after a quick hello to attend to the garden beds every chance he gets during the week. Luckily he is stuck at home this weekend!

I spent several hours on my "ornamental" pond yesterday. I put ornamental in quotes because it is supposed to be ornamental, but darn-it-all it's hard to achieve. Alex and I have differing opinions on what fish ponds mean first of all. To me a pond is a pond, with natural things occuring with only a little help from a mere mortal. Alex looks at it as a strange pool that needs chemicals and daily attention to keep it clear and shiny.

So I spent time draining out some really bright green water, powerwashing the edges and bottom of the shallow end, and refilling and vacuuming the pond. With a full blown sinus headache no less. It still looks pretty green, but not a solid green - more of a dark deep water green now. It will take some serious chemicals to get it back into presummer condition. And I hate to put chemicals into the pond. If only I could think of a way to make the algae for useful - like heating the house! I haven't seen the fish since I started the process. I trust they are hiding carefully and avoiding the skimmer net.





Since the garden is now in stasis, and I'm not really a foodie anyway, I'm changing the focus of this blog to what is simply going on these days. I really have no idea where this will take us, but, if you are interested you can stay with me, if not - it's been grand, and I'll see you around?

When we got back from the DC trip, I went out to my workshop to put a few things away, and to check on the general status of things. It was comforting to note that aside from a zillion ladybugs walking around the skylight windows, not much else had changed. It wasn't until the third or fourth trip to the workshop - also serving as a place to keep my pondkeeping tools and equipment, that I noticed that my clock was no longer keeping time. Have to change the battery I guessed.



Yeah, the benchtop looks pretty clean, huh? Not really, but I'm not ready to disclose the whole truth of my workshop just yet. It's a work shop, right ... my kind of work is, well, messy. Did you spot my really bad mistake yet? It gives me the willies everytime I think of it now.

I hadn't been in the workshop on a daily basis over the last month or so, concentrating on other things that kept me in the house. So I hadn't noticed that the path, and more importatly angle of the sun had dramatically changed over the past few weeks. Well. I learned a very important lesson. See that magnifying lense on the third hand device behind the clock?



You should see the burn mark on the bench top. Luckily you won't, because I can only load so many pictures into one blog entry. Suffice it to say, even though it is only the size of a quarter, it is equally burned into my soul. I cannot believe my stupidity! I thank the gods, goddesses, lucky stars, the universe and everyone else involved here that nothing more happened. I can't even go where it could have gone. Yikes. I wonder how long the willies will stay...