Weather's A-Comin'
I have so much to tell you about, so much to share - but here’s the thing : it’s all been put on hold on account of the forecast.
Because, you guessed it, a storm is coming. 76 and sunny today, but only 34 tomorrow. And they say there’s SNOW coming too! This very minute, a freezing rain has begun to fall and honest-to-God lightning is flickering outside the windows. It’s both exciting me and freaking me out at the same time - and I’m glad I took the day to prepare.
Our first order of business was to make a trip out to our favorite pumpkin patch.
After a hard frost or a snow, pumpkins in the field tend to be…a little sub-par. They get mushy and moldy and generally don’t last (if you can find undamaged ones at all) so picking a couple carvers and a handful of fun, decorative squash before the storm was mandatory. The patch we go to grows so many varieties of squash that we always come away with all sorts of goodies - but I must say that I’m partial to the warty specimens. I’m just a sucker for all that texture!
One of the great joys of both Eric and I working from home is that we can generally shuffle our schedules to make little outings like this possible. I try not to take that for granted, especially on days like this. Normally this favorite autumn activity happens on a weekend - and the patch is overrun with people. So to be able to go mid-week, on a gorgeous sunny day, when there were only a few other souls about? Such a gift.
The rest of my afternoon was spent out in the garden, harvesting what I could and ripping up everything else. Frostbitten, mushy vines and leaves are not pretty to look at and even less fun to handle…so I figured I’d do as much cleanup as I possibly could before the light ran out. At first this meant dripping sweat in the hot sun - but before long the clouds rolled in, a chill wind sprang up, and I was shivering in my t-shirt. It never ceases to surprise me how quickly the weather can change here, even when I’m looking for and expecting it.
By the end, I had harvested one last giant bowl of tomatoes (hopefully I’ll be able to get the green ones to ripen on the counter!), a ridiculous amount of peppers, eight butternut squash, and a big handful of parsley. There are a couple of pumpkins still ripening on the vine (I put up my hoops and plastic to try and nurse them through this storm), but other than that I snipped and dug and generally wiped the garden slate clean. It looks so barren now, but also so full of potential. I learned a lot this growing season and am already scheming on next year’s design.
So now it’s time to settle in for this bout of cold weather, snuggled up inside while it thunders and blows and (hopefully!) snows outdoors. This is the time of year when the studio calls - and with the outside falling into rest once again, I can answer with my whole heart.
