Wednesday, October 11, 2017

finally fall, for a few days anyway


Tuesday (with edits)...There's a cool front blowing in and it's raining leaves. I had just swept the concrete apron of the driveway clear of leaves a week ago and already yesterday it was nearly covered again. Even though the days are still humid and climbing into the low 90s, the trees know when to shed their tired dingy leaves. The oaks and the maple and the crepe myrtles and the tallows have been dropping their brown and dried up finery for weeks. Now this cool dry air blowing in will encourage them to release more. The oaks are starting to drop acorns as well and the pecans, well, the pecans have been dropping in their husks for months. Though I have been picking up nuts free of their husks for about a week they are as dried up inside as the leaves falling on the ground. I doubt we'll get many good ones this year.

While the new color samples will come out of the kiln later today and I will be filling the ready molds this week, today I am going to take advantage of this cool weather blowing in to dig out all the nut grass from one of the raised beds (done!) and repair the weed cloth between the beds where the flood lifted it up and moved it around (not done), something I've been putting off because it has been so hot and humid. Not that that has kept me from working outside during this weather but I do try to work in the shade. No shade over there where the gardens are.

Rocky is still getting the hardy board up around the outside of the house. He could finish today but probably won't. He's got his crew split up working on at least one other house and maybe another (as it was, he didn't show up, had been sick all weekend and was feeling pretty terrible when he worked on Monday). My poor ginger and ferns and mock dogwood and hummingbird bush are taking a beating growing right next to the house as they are. I had to move one small azalea before he trampled it to death. It seems to be recovering in it's new location.


Today...It's so nice and cool outside, a relief from the oppressive heat and humidity of this long summer. We even pulled up the quilt and slept under it last night. I turned off the AC and opened some windows and doors yesterday and didn't even break a sweat clearing out the nut grass in the garden in which I have several volunteer tomatoes that are blooming!

Well the samples came out and I numbered them and cleaned them up and I'm pretty pleased with them. Have one more combination I want to try when the first three drowned feather molds go in the kiln later this week.


So yesterday I had just enough time to get to the library and was ready to head out the door when I couldn't find my phone. Well, poop. I put it down somewhere. “Call me” I told Marc. Silence. Hmm, it's not in the house. Walked over to the shop where I had been working earlier. Not there either. It doesn't sit very deep in the rear pocket of the shorts I had been wearing so I looked around outside trying to remember where all I had been in the yard or on the street or around the shop. Still no phone. Finally I remembered that I had been playing chase with Minnie, who was loving the cool and not humid air and was feeling very energetic all day, at the back edge of the property beyond the mini wildflower meadow (which is now just a big weedy spot) and the compost pile and there it was, laying on the ground.




7 comments:

  1. Fall is but a myth here although yes, some trees are dropping leaves. I see that next week it may be cooler. I think we are all debilitated by this endless heat and humidity.

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  2. Well, thank goodness you found the phone! Why is it that construction people are so oblivious to plants? We had that problem with one of our tree guys -- he just trampled whatever was beneath his work area, completely oblivious.

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  3. The world is such a plopping mud works, it's a relief to have reliable, familiar surroundings with a phone somewhere to be found.

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  4. Amazing that you found your phone! I wish we could open our windows, but both of us are allergic to whatever happens at night out there. Weirdest thing - open the windows at night & sneeze ourselves to sleep.

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    1. I remember learning that there are some plants that release their pollen only at night. I don't remember what they are, but I go through the same thing sometimes. I'll have to look that up.

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  5. Glad you found your phone. It is maddening when you lose it, but such a relief when it is found.

    The date says autumn, but the temperatures say summer. I don’t mind unless they reach the 90’s. The leaves falling down though means a lot of arm work and will be something I will be doing for at least another month.

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  6. There's nothing like fall. It's going to warm up again over the weekend, apparently, but hooray for next week. A friend in the Panhandle got down to 40 -- I can't wait. It is great to be outdoors without feeling like death by dehydration might be right around the corner.

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