Weekending 10/30/23

 Good Moroning All,

How are you this Monday morning?  So hard to believe that it is October 30th!  How did that happen.  Around these parts tonight used to be called Mischief Night.  Kids would go out and do not nice things to neighbors' properties - like cover bushes in toilet paper, soap windows, smash pumpkins.  Luckily I don't think that goes on these days.  I do remember one of my brothers hiding in the bushes with a hose and when some unsuspecting kid would come up to do something on our property, my brother turned on the hose and sprayed them!!

How was your weekend?  Mine was different.  I did not meet up with Dee as I usually do (she and Steve went away for a little vacation).  I decided to switch out my wool sweaters, warmer leggings, etc. and put away my summer tank tops and shorts, etc.  I don't nearly have the amount of clothes that I used to.  Thank goodness!  Part of that is no longer "dressing" for work (jeans and a nice top do just fine) and part of that is realizing I just don't need that much.  Still, there is a lot.  I managed to pull aside quite a lot to donate (and I drove it all over to a thrift shop that afternoon!!), including shoes, wool jackets that no longer fit, winter pants that are beyond tight, and a whole lot more.

Of course, moving winter clothes to the front meant that it needed to be warm outside.  And it was - nearly 80!  But Sunday saw us struggling to hit 55 and it rained all day.  By this Wednesday night (11/1) we are forecast to dip into the 20's, so just in time!

Our colors are finally coming on strong.  Our crepe myrtle is a brilliant bronze color and simply shines in the sun.  And look at this contrast:

That is our redbud whose leaves have turned golden and one of our burning bushes which still has a lot of green on it, but also a brilliant red streak down the middle.  So pretty.  Fletch was tidying up part of the vegetable garden and brought in some of the asparagus shoots that are all feathery gold with red berries.  So pretty.

(Messy Table = Reality)

If you click to enlarge, you can see the asparagus shoots much better.  Our snapdragons are still blooming like crazy!  So I cut a few of them, and that is a branch from a burning bush in the other vase.  I finally put a fall tablecloth on the table!

Sunday, as I mentioned, was not a pretty day.  After breakfast I pulled together a pot of baked beans using one of the packages of yellow eyed beans I had ordered.  I forgot to take a picture, but wow were they delicious!  I used This Recipe omitting the bacon and adding a little bit of liquid smoke.  I also realized that we had garden tomatoes with every meal yesterday!  I made eggs and sh*t for breakfast (scrambled eggs with left over ham, peppers, mushrooms, onions and a few tomatoes); lunch was grilled cheese (with bacon, onion and sliced tomatoes) and dinner included a salad made from garden lettuce with some shrooms, sugar snaps, radishes and a chopped up tomato from the garden.  Yum!

I need to get out and pick some green tomatoes (for fried green tomatoes) and also pluck all the green figs before Wednesday night.  

We decided to head over to Colin & Mailing's Sunday afternoon.  I wanted to water the house plants and Fletch wanted to rake up a lot of leaves to bring back to cover our garlic bed.  We had a nice surprise to find Mailing at home!!  She had flown to California last week for a conference and then flew here Saturday morning - she has to be at her local office this week. She decided to stop at the house for a night or two so that she could get laundry done and just relax there rather than in a hotel room.  It was so good to see her!

Another surprise was this:

The only "souvenir" I brought home from our trip to Erie this past Fall was some acorns I gathered in Cook Forest State Park - they were some of the most beautiful acorns I had ever seen.  A striking gold color with beautiful green caps.  I put 8 or so into a little zip lock bag and threw them in my purse.  When we got home I rediscovered them.  One had a nice root already growing so I decided to plant a bunch of them.  The one with the sprouted root hasn't shot up out of the dirt yet, but another one did and there are tiny leaves growing!

The last two weeks were so freakin' busy at work that it is like a blur in my memory.  But, I think that wicked busy-ness is finished now (fingers crossed) and this week should be much better.  Fletch and I are getting our RSV vaccines later this morning and Wednesday I am taking Mabel to the vet - she is due for her shots and I just want to have her checked over anyway.  She is back to her normal self - in and out a hundred times a day.  We are keeping her inside at night and, so far, that is going ok (until 4 or so in the morning when she starts whining to go out!).

I hope you all had lovely weekends and are now prepping for a fabulous week!  Enjoy.