October 11, 2019
Last night had a frost and a hard freeze. It nailed everything. All the tomato leaves are burned and all the corn too. The eggplant and peppers are burned, and half the leaves on the grapevines surrounding the garden are toast. My summer garden is officially over for the year, I hope your's isn't. The crows that have flown over in ones and twos all summer have been joining up into flocks. I think they are getting ready to migrate..
Like the geese, some stay behind because I see them all winter long. The doves are also forming flocks, and I don't see doves all winter. My winter bird companions are numerous. Woodpeckers and scrub Jays, juncos and sparrows, robins and hawks, towhees and nuthatches, swallows and finches.The most enjoyable bird for me is the Northern Flicker because it's a large bird that feeds on the fallen logs, and flies up when disturbed, startling you into thinking it's a rabbit or squirrel..
October 12, 2019
You can literally watch the 7:00 pm October moon glide through the pine tree branches if the internet hasn't ruined your attention span. October is a good time to get the garden cleaned up before the November rains make everything wet and mushy. The warm sunny days make the task enjoyable. The cold nights remind us that winter will soon be here, so this month is a transition month. Being retired let's you feel the days as they move forward..
You have time to notiice the changing color of the leaves and the variable fragrances that are so abundant this time of year. Your primordial cognition is activated, and winter survival becomes an awareness. We take for granted warmth, food and shelter even though without them each winter could be our last..
October 13, 2019
Last night's freeze got the peas, broccoli and hollyhocks. I can't keep up with the destruction. I think the broccoli succumbed due to the weakening they received from the whiteflies. They usually last until mid November. Wilted hollyhock flowers are just sad, like an old maids slumber party. The color is still there, but the vibrancy has departed. They add an "I'm finished" look to the garden, and start you looking outside the garden for color. The spinach and lettuce are doing great..
They look like spring plantings. The beets, on the other hand, look terrible. They are short, wilted, misscolored, distorted and fallen over. An embarrassment to any gardener. It's as if a sorceress cast a spell on them. I'll leave them though, so that I may be humbled to meekness, and inherit the earth..
