Thursday, September 22, 2016

Happy First Day of Autumn!

Today certainly hasn't felt like autumn.  We're still very much in summer mode, but that's due to change starting tomorrow, according to the weather folks.  We really do need the rain, so I hope the change brings a nice gentle soaking.

I took a walk down onto our lower lawn this afternoon, needing to stretch my muscles and clear my head after spending several hours non-stop at my computer.  The normally wet spots that I usually have to avoid are simply not there.  The ground is almost as dry as our upper lawn, and that's downright dusty where we sowed the new grass earlier this summer.  I made the mistake of running the lawnmower over a little piece of that new lawn yesterday and raised a big cloud of dust.  I don't expect I did the struggling new grass seedlings much good.  We may have to toss out more grass seed to get a good catch since I haven't been faithful about watering the newly seeded area.

I was looking for apples on my walk.  We didn't have a bumper crop like last year, but last week there were a lot on both of our  trees and plenty on the ground.  Today I couldn't find a single one on either tree, and there were only a handful of half-eaten ones scattered underneath.  I'm thinking the deer had a banquet some night last week - or perhaps the bear helped.  The ground was picked as cleanly as I've ever seen.  So no applesauce this year!   Actually, we still have some from last year in the freezer.  We pulled out a container a few days ago and it was just as good as when it was freshly made.  

Woody, our cat, is adapting pretty well to the new rule of not being outside at night.  After his paw was injured a while back by goodness knows what sort of predator, we've been keeping him in at night.  He is still gone for long periods during the daytime some days, but lots of days he just sleeps until it gets dark and then teases to go out.  We let him into the garage where he can hear the night sounds and perhaps catch a glimpse of something through the windows, but he's safe.  Most nights he knocks to come back in and curls up in a convenient lap or on my desk, if I'm working at the computer.  He's here with me now.
 
I think I mentioned that I received a lovely woven bowl from Monika's sister in Namibia.  Actually, she sent a matching mat with it.  I took these pictures.  The women weave these from grasses and they are just beautiful.  It's very strange, but Woody took an immediate fancy to the bowl.  He sneaks up onto the table at night and we hear when it thumps against the back of the chairs.  He rubs his muzzle on the edge and it scoots over to the chair.  He hasn't damaged it or anything - he just wants to leave his scent on it, I guess.  This from a cat that ignores catnip! 

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