Putting the Garden to Bed

Come mid-October, it is time to think of beginning to prepare for winter, at least to the point of cleaning up the yard. As you are mostly aware, this has been a difficult year for Sue and me, so we dragooned the kids into giving us a hand on Friday after school. I picked them up at school, took them home to change, and then went through the drivethrough at Tim Horton's for a snack before setting them to work.

I had mowed the easement beyond the back fence earlier, and Sue had pulled some weeds and emptied the flowerpots. The biggest challenge for the kids was the Joe Pye. It took almost three bags to hold the clippings.

They would cut each stalk at the bottom and then cut it into three pieces over the wheelbarrow before transferring the pieces to the bag.

There was some cavorting, mostly by the boy, of course. He managed to dump seed and chaff into Danica's hair. In the next ↓ picture you can see him still holding the stalk that he had shaken over Danica.

After they dealt with the Joe, Hosta and lilies out back, we headed to the front where Jonathan found another Hosta to cut.

Meanwhile, Danica cleaned-up the row of daylilies with one more Hosta awaiting JJ's pruner in the foreground.

When work was done, we headed back to theirs for pizza that Shauna ordered for delivery.

The next day, yesterday, I took the five bags to the compost yard, but as I was leaving I spotted this bright, orange tree and decided it was worthy of a photo. (You can see other cars pulling into the yard. It was a busy morning.)

Later yesterday, their dad dropped by. He is able to hoist the lawnmower into the loft, if I may call the overhead shelves that. Then, he hauled our bicycles into the basement, the bikes that we didn't get out on even once, for by the time I had more or less recuperated from my trials and tribs, Sue had her surgery followed by that dratted E. coli infection. Sigh.

Our townhouse garage is tiny, but with the bikes and lawnmower out of the way, we will be able to squeeze the car into it once a few other items have been rearranged. Getting the car into the garage for winter helps to facilitate snow removal that costs us a small fortune, and it's just better overall during the winter months to get it out of the elements.

Update on the Great October Furnace Battle

After almost a week from posting of the Great October Furnace Battle, how is it going?

When I looked at the forecast last week, I thought that I would have capitulated by now, for the highest temperatures would be in the 50s, with 57F, being the usual high as I recall. With all of the nighttime temperatures being in the 40s, and even low 40s, I thought that the inside temperature would become intolerably cold.

It hasn’t worked out that way. Indeed, this morning (writing on Friday for Saturday) the inside temperature is 65F while it is down to nearly 40F outside. That’s a 25 degree difference. (I know that you don’t need me to do that arithmetic for you, but I wanted to highlight it.)

I am quite surprised that it has remained this moderate inside, but we are in a townie with two walls abutting neighbours, so that must help. They may even have their furnaces going. Of course, there is some heating by insolation despite the fact that some of the days have been quite overcast, but the difference still surprises me.

It is not the case that inside temperature of mid to lower 60s are balmy, but we, like good ole Mr Cratchet, do have garments, and they are sufficing for the time being. So, despite the fact that the Scrooge in us refuses to add coal to the fireplace, we are comfy enough.  

As well as it has been going, I cannot predict how much longer we will hold our ground in this battle, for I don’t see any hint of an Indian Summer in the two-week forecast. Will we get an Indian Summer at all this year? (I hope I can use Indian in this context without causing offence.)

One Hour: Two Photoshoots

Every now and then, Sue has a photo prompt to take a picture of where her feet are at a certain time of day. Yesterday, the designated time was 10AM.  Given the season, she decided that her feet should be in leaves, so off to the park we went.

Her idea for the first photo was to take a panorama starting at her feet and sweeping beyond to as far as the river. What a great idea and effect as our shadows became hugely elongated.

(All phone photos.)

Two more conventional points of view. I think she used the second one for her official submission.

Meanwhile, I wanted to get photos of me in a little, near-to-us clump of vegetation, including one colourful tree. I've tried photos of this little patch in other years, but they were always meh. I thought if I inserted me in my redblack jacket, it might be just the ticket. I had been thinking of using a tripod and doing selfies, but since I was already out with Sue, I asked her to take the pictures.

I think they are alright, but I also think this little plot is too busy and scrubby for topnotch photos. Glad I did it though, and now I won't have to wonder in future.

Autumn and Boulders

I wasn't going to post today, but when I came across these past autumnal photos, I thought that I would share them, especially since we haven't done much fall meandering this year.

They are both forest photos and both have a small boulder in the composition.

This ↓ first one is from Wheelers, the sugar camp that we generally visit every spring and autumn. Although we haven't made the autumn trip yet and likely won't, I like this one from 2016.

The second photo is from 2018, which was the last year that we stayed at the cottage in Kawartha Lakes.

Quick Pics

Two photos from a wee stroll on the trail with Sue. They are not photographically special but just meant to just show what is going on around here these days. They are all phone photos, but I do like the first one. A decent sky does help.

I think the flowers maybe hydrangeas, but I am not sure. If they are, I had no idea that they lasted this long. The second photo was taken very close by the first and looks through a gap on the opposite side of the trail across the river to Glen Isle.

JJ had his second and final training session for his job and is ready to deliver the groceries.

The Turkey and the Knife

In these latter years after several turkey mishaps, we have resorted to ordering a turkey breast. It's expensive, but it is our preferred white meat, so we bite the bullet as it were. Besides, it is usually only once a year, and it is not as though we spend a lot of meat, generally not purchasing it unless it is on sale.

After 2.5 hours it had reached past 180F and was cooked and looking pretty darn good.

Now, I'se dunno if it is precisely correct to call it carving the turkey when it is just a breast, but I need this ↓ photo to recount the story of the knife.

Well, it is not much of a story, but I want to tell you about the knife. It's a hand-me-down, and a very old one at that. It was back around 1978 when our neighbour got a new electric knife. She passed this one on to Sue, and we have been using this secondhand knife for these 45 or so years. While I am sure that a new knife would slice cleaner, this oldie but goodie still does the job. Apparently, we are very frugal in some ways, even though we might splurge on an expensive turkey breast.

Aside from the eye-popping expense, the drawback in ordering just the breast is that it comes skinless, and I do confess that I love the skin of a roasted bird. However, Sue had seasoned and juiced the bird well, and the resultant, crispy coating was pretty good.

Of course, Sue made several composites, and I have chosen to share this one.

Last evening, it was part of a most scrumptious Thanksgiving feast, but I am reminded that when I was a boy, I was so enthralled with stuffing that I thought it was the turkey. It is still the highlight for me.

Pie Pickup Day

Saturday was pie-pickup day at the United Church in Ashton, a hamlet only about ten minutes away from Carleton Place. I had ordered online a pumpkin pie and an apple pie for todays Thanksgiving feast.

Last year, on the same trip, I had detoured around a little to get autumn photos, which were at their peak. But it was rainy on this Saturday, so I chose to drive directly to Ashton and back this year.

Upon arrival, I grabbed a couple of photos of the little park across the street from the church.

I had taken quite a few interior photos on my previous visit for Easter pies here, so I only took one quickie this year with a pano sweep (as discussed a bit recently in my Woolgrowers post). It is such a distinctive church with the pulpit in the corner with pews curved toward it, and along with the stained glass windows, that I couldn't resist taking at least one more photo. Once again, I am so impressed at how well the iPhone handles the lighting, and to think that I can take the photo in a second or two without fussing with the big camera and combined with post-production editing.

I see that I took an almost identical ↓ photo with me dslr last April, but the new phone version ↑ is probably better, at least on first glance.

Back outside, having picked up my prize pies, I did another bottom to top, vertical panorama. I still didn't get the whole width of the building. The warping of outside architecture like this perhaps makes the panoramic style not appropriate, but it was fun to experiment some more. By the way, we can also call a vertical panorama a vertorama. I like that.

I took one more photo looking across the road from the church , kitty-corner to the southeast. It was a dull day but there was still some fairly nice, if understated, colour, and I quite like the image.

Then, I drove directly home without stopping for more photos although I did pass a few very nice stands of trees alongside the highway.