Fall

after the passing of the hurricane. It's that heartbreakingly beautiful weather when summer seems to recede faster and faster into the blue. It's too early for frost, and the geraniums, asters, and anemones are still splendid. After the aphid storm and consequent ladybug farm, the nasturtiums have bounced back nicely and I can eat them without a suspicious inspection.

My potted tomato went down with some kind of fungus after the big rain, so now I have a basket of green tomatoes in newspaper. The cherry tomatoes in the window boxes still deliver a few beauties every day. The lablab vines are covered with gorgeous purple beans.

Dog loves the coolth and frolics with anybody who's willing, including a sexy young boxer bitch three times his size.

The long shadows spell sadness.

Policy not party!

I've never understood the science behind that.

Up in Zone 5b: Too cool (thirties), beatifully sunny, but still heading toward the 60s in the day.

[ ] Very tepidly voting for Obama [ ] ?????. [ ] Any mullah-sucking billionaire-teabagging torture-loving pus-encrusted spawn of Cthulhu, bless his (R) heart.

it only works if the maters are already starting to turn red. trust me, we learned that the hard way last year, and tossed out almost a bushel of wrapped green tomatoes that just turned to mush instead of ripening.

fall here is nice, although i guess technically one should say that it's only begun this week. so far it's been warm, dry, and sunny. very nice.

if autumn no matter where I happen to live. The backlighting caused by the lower angle of the sun just seems to make me a bit giddy. We're down to @ 13 hours of daylight here with daytime temps in the 70's (except cooler when it rains...it does rain in Oregon now and then).

Trees in the city are beginning to turn and it looks like we'll have good color this year. Up in the mountains the vine maple and huckleberry bushes have been brilliant red, depending on how much sun they get, for the past couple of weeks. Mt. Hood had its first dusting of snow last night.

The garden is winding down. Yesterday afternoon I chatted with my 2 year old neighbor in his new propeller beanie cap as I started trimming down the red raspberry canes and picked a few fresh strawberries. The cherry tomatoes won't be out much longer...I've had good luck with pulling up the whole plant and hanging it in the garage to let as many ripen as possible.

Soon I will start fall cover crop of fava beans and get the garlic planted.

78F again today, nights in the high 50s, sunny blue skys and light afternoon breezes. All the flowers are still in full bloom, the tomatoes and cukes are producing abundantly, and the cooler days have the herbs exploding with vigor. The doors and windows are open all day to fresh air, and I sleep with an open window and a single light blanket. Tough, I know, but someone has to live here.

I've tried both ways to finish off tomatoes, stripping them and covering with newspaper (an apple does speed things up) and ripping up the vine to hang intact in a basement or garage. Leaving them on the vine in my experience provides a higher percentage turning ripe, but that may depend on conditions. As CD notes, those that are solid green are unlikely to turn; if they don't progress in a few days, clean and stem and freeze for use in cooking or salsa; they work wonderfully for chili verde.

Fava beans, vastly under-appreciated. The Spanish make a soup with favas and blood sausage and roasted garlic, rich and hearty and magnificent with fresh-baked coarse bread on a cold winter's day.

The crispness of Fall in the Rockies is something I miss, the brightening of colors on aspen and sumac, the increased activity of wild creatures, the bugeling of elk and the nosing around of skunk and bear looking for anything they can get hold of to eat and a snug place to den up.

I do not, however, miss what comes next; shoveling snow, or frozen pipes, or stepping on ice in dress shoes only to discover that it was just a thin crust on top of an ankle-deep puddle.

Trade-offs, all around us, all the time.

for a week already--sunny with highs in the upper 60s-low 70s, and cool nights--just perfect (rain's coming for the wkend tho)

http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/find...

this is how september always was when i was little, but lately it's been staying hot with fall not coming til October--i'm glad we're cooler this year.

cool thing -- http://www.die.net/earth/

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Should it ever happen here in the Cincinnati area. Today, 86 sunny and clear with more of the same predicted. We need some rain.