Tuesday, October 13, 2020

AUTUMN WEATHER ARRIVES

Solar Halloween lights

If we had any question that autumn is upon us, it’s settled now. More seasonable temperatures arrived over the weekend. The chill in our bedroom Saturday afternoon convinced me it was time to put the electric blanket back on the bed. And now today (Tuesday, Oct. 13), it’s raining in earnest. We can use the moisture. The vegetation looks stressed.

 

We went back to town Friday afternoon. Mike had a meeting with banquet Saturday, but due to the pandemic, he opted not to attend the banquet.  

 

Sunday, the hunters went hunting, and Bess for one is enthusiastically loving the cooler weather. Mike reports she worked hard, and she was still tired on Monday, content to curl up on her pillow and sleep.

 

While the hunters hunted, I shopped for groceries. This time I bought a lot since Hallie and Nick will be with us this week. I miss those little inexpensive seasonal touches, such as Halloween napkins, paper towels, spiced creamer, and holiday soaps. At least we have Halloween candy, and I’ve heard that nationwide it’s flying off the shelves. Well, Albertsons still has plenty. They were out of canned pumpkin, though.

 

Yesterday (Monday) was a beautiful day, and during lunch, Mike suggested we return to the farm instead of putting it off. “If we don’t want to pack and unpack in the rain, we should go today,” he said. I had not expected this development, but I said I could be ready in an hour or so.

So, here we are back at the farmhouse. We arrived about 3:30 Monday. It was 58 degrees and sunny. The farmhouse was a bit chilly, but we waited until today to start a fire. As soon as we had unpacked, Mike and Bess went hunting. The elusive covey of Huns (that’s Hungarian Partridges, not Attila’s group) surprised them, and they didn’t bring any back. Mike said it was Bess’ fault for not detecting their presence.

Elderberries

 

Meanwhile I walked down the lane and checked the apple trees. I had hoped to pick apples from the "Winterstein" tree at the bottom of the road, but the showing is poor this year. The deer bed down under the fruit trees and eat off the lower branches as well as the ones that fall. Even so, the few I see on the trees don’t look all that good. KW





3 comments:

Chris said...

I read a recent article about the lack of pumpkin for sale and it quoted an industry source as saying the pumpkin crop was late this year and therefore harvested late. They said as soon as it was processed it would be back on the shelves. We'll hope!

Chris said...

Here's a link:
https://www.delish.com/food-news/a34316381/is-there-a-pumpkin-shortage-2020/

Kathy said...

Thanks for the info and the link, Chris. I remember there was a shortage of canned pumpkin some years back. Well, I have several of the larger cans on hand. I can limp through if need be.

I have seen the Safeway brand in small quantities. On one of my shopping excursions, another shopper asked me if I knew where she could find the pumpkin. I pointed to the bottom shelf where there were two cans left -- one large and one small. She gleefully took both.