An October Walk

In early October, we visited family in upstate New York to celebrate Oliver's birthday. We took a walk one unseasonably warm morning, just Kevin, O and I. Our meanderings had a magical feeling that reminded me of being outside as a kid, playing with sticks, leaves, puddles and mud. I took the first deep breaths I'd had in weeks. We did pick up a couple of ticks, though --- never let nature lull you into complacency.

 

Yellow brick road.

 

Ack! November!

Somehow it's November. I stumbled through the past few months in a anxiety-induced coma of sorts, but the garden grew anyway. An important lesson: Seeds and weeds often grow despite our best / worst efforts. Much of life is out of our control.

Happily, our garden continues to provide purple passion even as the sun steals away day by day. This week I picked a couple of small cabbages and some of the onions. Still to come: Brussel sprouts and spinach. I'll take it as long as I can get it.

#VPTJulyPix Squashed!

It's over-flowing-amounts-of-summer-squash time in the garden. For some reason this freaks me out. I don't like the sinking feeling I get when I know we're not keeping up with the picking of said squash, let alone the eating. I wanted to try to capture the feeling somehow in an image - and this is the result. 

More to come, but right now I've got to go pick more squash.

#VPTJulyPix Flower: Rudbeckia hirta.

It's black-eyed susan season in the gardens. They're taking over and I don't mind a bit.