Eclectic Catch -Up Post

The yard is now scattered with these. Pretty, but also kind of depressing.  Although I love the fresh, crisp air, the earthy smells and the vivid colors of autumn, I hate being reminded that winter is around the corner and seeing the days getting shorter and shorter...

But, we do intend to savor every moment.  We are packing in as much  time outdoors and with friends and doing fun things as we can.

Gayle, my best friend from high school, visited for a couple days during one of her genealogy research excursions.  We see each other so rarely, but despite the divergent paths our lives have taken over the past 30 years, we are still connected at the heart.

A double-wide hammock is a great place to  talk about philosophies,, experiences, dreams.














At least until the turkeys intrude, untying your shoes or yanking on your hair.

Our friends Jim and Carla, also novice farmers, learned that our tomato harvest was disappointing this year (too wet, split tomatoes and slugs galore.)  Jim dropped off a large box of their excess, beautiful  paste-tomatoes. I roasted many pans of tomatoes and made sauce and paste form this box of tomatoes.  Thank you, Jim and Carla!

Two weeks ago we had an incredible wind blow through, brief but destructive.  It  tilted our gazebo over, pulling the cemented anchors out from the patio,  scattered heavy lawn furniture and  branches across the yard, and snapped off a couple of the huge old silver maples along our pasture fence.   We hired a tree-company to cut down the hung-up branches and the standing trunks of the trees because they were too big for our chainsaw. A few sections of the fence still need to be rebuilt, but happily, our homeowners insurance will help reimburse the costs.

Last week when I woke up in the middle of the night because a dog was barking, I looked out the window and noticed the nearly-full moon peeking through the top of the windmill.  Somehow, when things align like that, it feels like a tiny miracle.