After this long brutal summer....

The cukes have given us one last fruit; it was invisible until the vines died back.

The tomato bin has proven surprisingly resilient; I expect being two thirds oak leaf compost means it holds a lot of water. Really, that bin has the nicest soil on the property! It's been subject to squirrel depradations lately and I rather think there may be nut trees sprouting come spring. I smoothed the soil back out, broadcast carrot seeds over the whole bin, and dumped half a big trash bag of mixed dried leaves over the top. So far the squirrels are leaving it alone and the tomatoes seem to have perked up even more. There are two pepper plants on the right hand end and they're just loving having their feet covered. No fruits from anything yet, but there are blossoms on all the plants.

A closer look. I am so sold now on planting in leaf compost! If there is ANY way I can manage it, I am going to be steali---errrrr, I mean SAVING, yes, saving---bags of leaves wherever I find them this fall!

What's left of my gardens after summer's brutality. The pots are mostly empty, the garden about half empty. The weeds and the sprawling tomato vines, plus the honeyvine milkweed on the fence all make it look better than it is. I never got green beans and the plants were the first established garden plants to burn out this year. The cukes produced--we had to pull them half-size, but they produced until they also burnt out. The tomatoes did not produce but have only died back by about a third. The eggplant has been a modern marvel; small seedy fruits with bittr skins but the plants just keep on growing. The peppers have been lackluster, half-dead, and the lilac pepper did die. The strawberries and snow peas died out at the beginning of July and the snow peas I planted to replace them died in mid-July.

In the pots, the herbs and rose bushes have all died, except for one mint plant (Mint Julep) and the itty-bitty remains of the bronze fennel plant. Four strawberries survived, and the kohlrabi survived. The chrysanthemum seems okay, but the geraniums have all died mostly back. The red-veined sorrell was doing GREAT and jusssst before I went to harvest it a squirrel took the whole doggoned plant, right back to the roots!!

The lilac and the blueberry died--I swear, that lialc is the queen of resurrection, because this is the third time in two years it has leafed back out again. The blue-ray blueberry has green stems yet, but no leaves at all. I cannot tell if it's just dormant or if it truly has died.

Most of the pots just need to be replanted, which is why we put them in the back yard today. Autumn sunshine and the close proximity of the hose will, I hope, work an autumn miracle and give me a good garden over the next couple of months.... once I figure out the squirrell-proofing.

The experimental garden is flourishing in late summer and early autumn. What you cannot tell from this pic is that the squirrels have already made off with the first and biggest sunflower heads; those are the secondary buds from low down on the plants. The morning glories bloom every day into the midafternoon, deeeeeeep purple beauties, Grandpa Ott's (an heirloom). That's an eggplant dangling out the side there behind the sunflowers; it has a compadre on the other side of this garden.

The pinto beans have scaled themselves way back. During early and mid-August they were lush and overpowering, sprawling all over the garden and into the yard with leaves as huge as those on the morning glories and just COVERED with white blossoms. Now they are small again and have a couple beans. Sheesh.

Did I remember to mention how brutal this summer was??

There is purslane in there.

Somewhere.

This is the eggplant in the main garden, which has finally caught up with the eggplants in the experimemtals garden. That's quite a testamonial to Dylan's Microbe Booster because this eggplant is a month older than the others and was ahead of them for quite a while, but it just didn't weather the heat as well as they did. Now it is gifting me with nodding lavender beauty and ruffly huge gray-green leaves. I think it will probably do well for the rest of the autumn.

Are they not gorgeous? I'll try to catch a picture when the morning glories are open. I love the way the purple and gold complement each other.

I started this post with what's left... here is what's coming, more snow peas. I planted them in patches around the pepper plants at the far right end of the main garden and overseeded them with parsley and cilantro, then dumped the other half of the big bag of mixed leaves on top. So far no more squirrel depredations in here, either, and the peppers in here perked up as sis the luffa. Might have had something to do with the compost I spread around pretty liberally before I broadcast the herb seeds--that huge bin of sticks is finally giving me REAL compost!

All in all I'd say we survived summer okay, if rather bruised and battered around the edges. Now to see if we can flourish in autumn. Wishing you a long gentle season of recovery and/or new growth as well!

Bright Blessings,

Cath

full-size pic: Autumn Wreath

I hope this doesn't take too long to load; I couldn't get far away enough with the camera to take a smaller pic! My fingers are crossed that by setting the size in the post, I made it quicker for anyone on dial-up.

This is made from a branch I saved last winter for a dreamcatcher which somehow never really wanted to be made... when I wanted a door-wreath, though, there it was!

The broom at the top is made from pine needles, bound with the shed leaf-stalks of a Dracaena marginata (Madagascar palm). I made it in Phoenix the Autumn before I moved here. The stalk of grass was gathered in September while walking the doglet. The branch and leaves were gathered last week specifically for the wreath, and a sweetgrass braid was taken apart and rebraided to be longer and skinny specifically for the wreath.

I didn't intend for the sycamore leaves to curl up that way. They were flat as boards when I worked them into the wreath. Maybe some oak or maple is in this wreath's future! Sheesh.

The doily was not specific to the wreath until I recognized two things: I was making too many mistakes to give it away, and all that brown-ness needed some white! LOL, I've always been like that... I used to tell my sibs they could only have the broken cookies or overdone ones when I was baking, since the good ones went on the holiday gift trays. *made sure there were plenty of broken ones, though* Anyhow, I will do this doily again (I've already started it in that rainbow thread I used for the ric rac, just to see how it works) but probably in a larger thread. Size eighty thread gives a small doily, as you see here--tis only six inches edge-to-edge--and I would like it to be a little larger if I am going to give it as a gift.

The pattern was unnamed, from the October 2004 issue of Magic Crochet magazine. It was an issue of doilies and mats, slanted toward the Winter holidays, and I am so glad I have it! I was tired of four- and six- and eight-based patterns; a five-based pattern is so nice, and I am always on the lookout for five-pointed stars.

I love you too, TX Self

Another nine word poem for Arwen. These are from her post here on her Tarot blog. I cheated; my poem's not about a Tarot card. *grin*

~Blessing~Rod~Stern~Sycophants~Keys~Pillars~Cardinal~Trinity~Gray~


Trinity

Autumn's blessing stands in state
Blue jay, cardinal, flicker
Gnarled bark brown, tan, gray slate
Blue jay, cardinal, flicker

Flaming rod of crimson hue
Flowing golds and oranges
Pillars standing tall and true
Blue jay, cardinal, flicker

Walnut balls and hickories
Underfoot with maple keys
Harvest blessing in the streets
Blue jay, cardinal, flicker

Soon enough stern Winter's call
Blue jay, cardinal, flicker
Comes to end sweet Autumn's thrall
Blue jay, cardinal, flicker

Yet till then the trinity
Blue jay, cardinal, flicker
Holds its sway in Nature's seat
Blue jay, cardinal, flicker

Mornings soft with woodsmoke scents
Afternoons of sunny bent
Evenings Winter's sycophants
Blue jay, cardinal, flicker

Colors bright and swiftly fleeting
Flashing in the trees a greeting
To a heart Autumn'ly beating
Blue jay, cardinal, flicker

Noticing the Natural World--Late Summer into Fall

Fall is coming in on hurricane wings... I realized this morning that with the storms moving through so steadily now (there's one in from Baja through Mexico right now, and they're saying Ike will be through Texas and on into Kansas by Monday), there isn't likely to be any last stand for Summer here in Wichita. It might fluctuate between warmer and colder/wetter, but it is going to remain Fall here no matter what--the Season has settled in for the duration. I'm hoping it's a long mellow duration, but I have this nagging feeling that Winter will also come in and settle early... and Spring will be a little late, maybe?.... Not sure on that one, too soon to see any signs.

I never knew I had this weather sense before. I think maybe it'sbecause I am paying better attention to the world around me now, and so I am more open to reading the Seasons and their turning. Before when I lived in a climate that didn't suit me I really kept myself closed off as a survival mechanism... although I was always right about how doggoned hot and/or dry it was going to be, and my rain predictions were way more accurate than the weather service's... so maybe this sense was partially awake even there...

I am learning to trust myself; the morning I felt Fall come to Wichita, I told myself not to be silly since it was only August... but time has shown that I did know what I felt when I felt it. I was accurate. It's kind of astonishing, yanno? I never expected that to be so. I didn't know weather watching was a skill that could improve with practice--I thought it was a gift that one either had, or did not.

Yesterday I noticed that although the leaves are still deep, deep Summer green, enough leaves have fallen to make the tree canopies more open and curiously more graceful-looking. AND we saw fireflies again! After the long heat, they have come back out... or maybe tis after the long dry spell they have come back out? Well heck, for all I know of firefly mating habits, maybe they just have two seasons, lol... but I loved seeing them whatever the reason.

My garden is much reduced. The squash bugs have almost completely decimated the vines, and so my glorious lush green "squash hedge" is gone. I miss that luxurious greenery! I haven't had to water in about two weeks, though; the flowerpots are wet clear through and now the basil and mint are finally starting to grow again. The verbena has new blooms and the oregano and tarragon are full of new growth. Ican see that summer in flowerpots on cement is hard for plants; the Autumn light is much kinder.

I notice in people's yards, the shade flowers have come into their own, the violets are putting up new leaves, and the mosses are re-sprouting. The occasional fence is covered in moss and lichens, as are some of the tree-trunks. It doesn't seem to be true that moss grows only on the north side of trees in the city, though... luckily Ican rely on the street signs if I ever get lost! *grin*

The hawks are still here, yet Summer's birds seem to be more visible again, and I am wondering if it might be the fledglings come into their own now. Certainly every morning is greeted with glorious birdsong!

The sky alternates between grey and brilliant blue, and the air between dry warmth and cool misty haziness. I confess, I never knew before that grey was an Autumn color; I always thought of the "earthtones" yanno, browns, mustards, oranges, scarlets... but I didn't know there were sky tones also, the misty greys, the warm deep blues. And although I am waiting happily for the leaves to turn their brilliant Autumn hues, I see that the deep mature green of full canopies and the intensely vivid carpeted green of new moss are also Autumn colors.

I can walk at night now with very few unsavory bugs--except those darned skeeters!--and the frogs no longer sing their mating songs (a good thing in the case of the frog that sounds like abandoned babies on the verge of death! eeep!), but the cicadas are still loud in the afternoons and evenings. A new sound has joined them, some sort of clicking beetle, and of course the crickets remain and are getting louder as the season turns.

What is like for you right now? What Season are you in? What has changed; what has stayed the same?

Curious as ever,
Cath

She was just an excuse, yanno?

She didn't have to be walked that far.... I just didn't want to go back inside. It was 57 degrees (14 Celsius), cloudy and breezy--a perfect Autumn night. I even had to wear my jacket!!

Autumn Dog, optional camera flash eye-enhancement feature included at no extra charge

This has been the VERY best Autumn since last year!! *dances away with a cheeky grin* In case you might not have known, I really truly love Autumn. *wink*