My Reluctant Autumn

It is not my favourite time of year. Yesterday the mercury barely crested the fifteen degree mark. I decided that even though we have had only a whiff of frost It was time to stop coddling the zuchinni under an orange tarp every evening and bring it inside.

This morning as I sat at the dinning room table, snuggled in flannel pajamas and hand knitted wool slippers, drinking a hot drink and writing on my MacBook I thought way not light a fire. What a revelation.

A friend gave me a large paper bag full of several varieties of daffodil bulbs. I’m waiting for the rest of the bulbs, I ordered from Botanus back in June, to arrive before I plant them. I‘ve already cut down the slowly dying Dahlias, shaken the soil off the tubers and put them in a bag filled with vermiculite to keep them dry.

Every other day I pick a couple of handfuls of peas. I can’t believe the vines are still putting out flowers. I was picking beet leaves to add to my salads all summer and I was a bit skeptical as to how big the beet roots were growing. Today I was surprised and gratified to see some of them have grown to be an acceptable size. Bring on the borscht.

I have a new set of compost bins made of logs, 2x4's and plywood. I'm throwing all my dead and gone to seed annual flowers, dead perennial flowers and stems and worn out left over vegetable garden stuff into it. Any perennial seed heads I chuck in the bush since I don't want then sprouting in my gardens next year when I feed the soil with compost.

the worse thing about this time of year is waking up at my usual time, 6 am, and thinking I need to go back to sleep because it is dark.