Every
morning my email is filled with messages from my favorite retailers reminding
me that it will soon be autumn. “Check out our patterns, fabric, and kits,”
they say. “Get ready to decorate for the season. Oh! And did we mention that
Christmas is coming?” It doesn’t bother me in the least. I love it. On the
other hand, I’m still working on the Halloween and Christmas quilts I started
two years ago, and I have yet to be tempted by their marketing ploys.
Well,
the suggestion of autumn seemed unbelievable as we struggled in the heat. This
week, though, there’s been a change. It turned cooler last weekend with
scattered showers. It rained a little here at Gilbert. Monday night I traded my
summer nightie for my summer pajamas. We slept under a blanket with a quilt
over our feet. Tuesday morning the low was 54 degrees – foggy and drizzly. Today
(forenoon) it’s not yet 70 with a cold wind a-blowin'. I may have to change into a warmer shirt and jeans! I guess it's a good day to
work on that Halloween quilt.
I
haven’t cycled for several years, but last week Mike brought my little Trek
mountain bike here to Gilbert and we’ve been making some short rides together at
a slow pace. I carry my bike on the 4-wheeler to the top of Plank’s Pitch and
wait for Mike to join me. Today was our fourth day out and we went two hills
farther. Oh! And little Bess runs beside us all the way. 
I
know the garden wasn’t really happy in the heat, but I have to wonder about the
effect of this cool weather. The cherries and raspberries are past. I’ve picked
four or five zucchini. We had a delicious vine-ripened tomato in last night’s
green salad and I have another small one for our lunch sandwiches. I wish those
green tomatoes would hurry and ripen.
I’m
illustrating here with pictures of whitetail deer in the north field. They seem
to abound this year. Mike counted 14 before he reached the top of the Gilbert
Grade last week. And it seems to me we've seen more bucks. In this last set, you see a buck under an apple tree in the lane. In the photo on the right, he stands on his hind legs to reach the apples. I've never paid much attention to that tree, but I noticed recently that the apples have a pointed end -- are oval rather than round. KW
6 comments:
It feels fall-like here, too. It's quite breezy and cool today and I'm loving it! It's cold in the morning and we've had to close windows and put on warm clothes, too. Yay!
Well, it's probably short-lived -- and in all honesty, we should expect more summer. I put on warmer clothes this morning, but by noon I was roasting.
Your landscape is much too green to believe autumn is anywhere close! No break in the heat for us (by our rules, anyway). Still high 70s low 80s and we'll be in the mid to high 80s this weekend. Those darn deer. I keep thinking about how you said there weren't many deer on the farm until they dammed the river and the reservoir pushed them out. On that topic, I highly recommend the documentary DamNation (available for free streaming on Amazon Prime).
Of course, you're right about the green, Hallie. But you should see it today. Every day the green is a little browner. It will be harvest soon -- even if it's another month. But -- it is hot again, and summer should be warm.
I'll watch the documentary when I get a chance. I think the deer were displaced by the dam, but they have also been displaced nationwide by human population growth.
Yesterday I saw a mama mule deer and her twin fawn at MJ's house. "We are going with our mother," said the fawn.
I think there are also so many because people don't hunt much any more.
That's a good point, Chris. Of course, we see hunters here, and you also know hunters, but as a whole people are losing interest. Young people aren't interested in hunting. But interest in conservation includes hunting, so this is a concern.
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