The Third Act

just a little obsessed...

This autumn (close enough!) light always get me.  Every morning it's like it grabs my chin and turns my head towards it.  I willingly comply.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

It was 50F this morning!  Just glorious.  The temperatures are going to rise over the next week, but the humidity is supposed to remain low-ish.  That's about the best one can hope for for the beginning of September.

I've continued to work through the yards and gardens...weeding, cutting back, pulling out.  There's a bin of leaves just waiting to be further shredded and mixed with manure to mulch all the bare spots.  I did have to take a day or two off.  It's not at all hard to burn myself out. Plus, I've got some major sleep transitions going on that can have an impact on my functionality.  Truth be told, I had to take a nap this afternoon.  Even though there's still a lot to do outside (that's always the case) I'm not dreading the tasks as much given more humane weather.

There's a tinge of color change in the dogwoods.  Those trees seem to be the first to shift to their autumn finery.  Funny thing, I didn't see any pumpkins at Costco a couple days ago.  There was a little bit of Halloween stuff.  But I averted my eyes to the rows of Christmas items already.  Ugh.  Not a fan.  Let me revel in autumn, thank you very much!

 

 

 

 

 

 

I don't mind...

...the old woman I'm growing into.

 

 

Single minded

I’ve been so single minded about getting work in the yards and gardens done, I haven’t even been making art. Here are pics from my work today. The back finally got some love.

 

 

 

making up for lost time

The summer felt so brutal to me this year, that I let certain areas of my property go.  Well, I mean, the woodsy back always sort of takes care of itself.  But I have plantings that I put in on the south side of my house, after trees were taken out, that go gaga if not tended to.  

Soooo...with the weather being as delightful as it is, that has been the focus of my attention.  It's getting there.  I'm biting off chunks and trying to maintain focus (because there is just a lot to do...I mean, I have a lot of ideas too).  

Consequently art art is currently on the back burner.  I have another entry to get out, but I have over a week to do that.  I have to say, I do enjoy the physical labor (even if my body isn't always keen on it).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

beautiful day

Despite the day starting with a power outage, it turned out very pleasant.  The power was back on by mid-day and didn't affect me too much.  It just meant a pivot, which is fine.  This afternoon I tackled the garden on the south side of my house.  Being that the temps were only in the mid 70s and the humidity was low, I could easily wear long pants and sleeves.  No bug spray needed!!  I managed to get out the overgrown nettle (don't worry, it'll be back), prune back one of the roses (see rose hips below) and get at the overgrown muscadine vines.  There's more to do, but I'll save that for another day.  Sometimes just taking that step forward into what seems like a daunting task makes me realize it wasn't as bad as I imagined.  

Autumn has it's own special flavor of garden enthusiasm.  While I'm not big on a winter garden, I'll probably plant a bed or two with some greens.  Mainly I want to heavily mulch the beds with compost, letting them rest until next year.  Then there is the long list of infrastructure ideas that need manifesting, which will hopefully make next year's garden easier to handle (an ongoing theme).

I'm so happy for September to have arrived with such lovely weather.

 

 

 

September

This has been the first summer in a while in which I really wanted it to be over.  I'm sure there are a number of reasons for that.  In any case...I'm delighted September is here.  Not only that, we have the good fortune of starting the month with cooler than typical temperature.  The next few days should be really delightful, and I'm sure will find me in the garden a bit of the time.

I've restarted my sourdough starter.  For some reason, I just couldn't revive the old one.  This morning I decided I'd make some pancakes with the discard.  I make pancakes maybe once or twice a year...and I'm satisfied.  It seemed a good way to celebrate this oncoming autumnal season.

 

 

 

 

okra

Even if the pods get too big to eat, they still make a good photographic subject!

 

 

 

 

up close

One characteristic of shooting pinhole is being able to get in so close to the subject and keep everything in focus.  Often there can be a rather bizarre tweaking of scale in the photo, since the depth of field is so vast.  While there isn't necessarily anything like that going on in these images of the garden, I still think they're intriguing.

 

 

 

 

Wednesday

Could it be...summer's last hurrah??  I won't venture to say.  It's hot hot hot today.  However it doesn't feel quite as humid as I expected.  Still, not a great day for being outdoors.

There were a number of indoor tasks to address today anyway.  I finished up some choices for a couple calls for entry.  I emptied out all the poppy seed pods (there's almost enough to make some poppy seed filling) and I shot/processed/scanned/edited a roll of film from the Zero.  I do still love pinholes.  The more I make them the more they delight me.  

Next week, perhaps, just maybe (if the forecast is somewhere near correct) it'll feel more like autumn again.