imperceptible hints and progress

The other day, Thursday maybe, I was out in the yard mid-morning and caught one of those breezes with an almost imperceptible hint of cooler air, a brief ahhh and then it was gone. Saturday, while I was working at the store, the flags on the Courthouse Square at the Veteran's Memorial were standing straight out from a north wind. 

Saturday's sunset

Sunday morning it was pleasant enough that I got out there and did some fall maintenance, things like pruning mostly. In fact, I guess that's all I did judging from the piles of debris I left in my wake as I moved around the yard. I cut out some of the ginger canes, the earliest bloomers that were starting to look old and ragged. The newer canes are the ones that are blooming now. Then I pulled out the already dead tall orange cosmos from amongst those still growing and blooming although they have all fallen over for the most part and in some cases, already rooted themselves to the ground where they touch. Picked off the gone by zinnia blooms, pruned a stem off a white plumeria and potted it for a trade for a red plumeria. Pruned out some dead canes on the roses that climb up into the crepe myrtle and oak, cut back the spent bloom stalks of the purple cone flowers and easter lilies, pulled up the poison ivy that sprouts continually in the yard, and there is still so much to do, always the case in late summer because during high summer and the dog days, NOTHING gets done outside.

These are our seasons...spring, summer, high summer, dog days, late summer, fall, winter.

That little respite was short lived.

I've been working inside on the last diagram now that the first stencil is cut and marked. 

Marc should start the sandblasting next week as he is still getting the temporary blast tent set up and we have to hire some guys to help us move the panels around. 

Our walk in blast booth, an 8' x 12' Tuff Shed is too small and short to easily get the glass panels, which weigh 200 lbs apiece, inside. We abandoned the old Tuff Shed at the city house when we sold out two years ago because it was easier and it, like everything there, was infested with termites. So we bought an identical one for out here or so we thought. This one is easily 2' shorter than the old one which makes the door considerably shorter, something we didn't notice until they had it built. It's a much less pleasant booth to work in, as if you could call the first one pleasant but at least that one didn't make you feel like you were going to bump your head all the time.

One more sign summer is ending even if it's not apparent by the outside temperature.