Things in the garden and around the homestead are winding down. The cucumber plants are fruitless, their leaves yellow and wilting, as are the leaves on the pumpkin plants. The eggplants are still producing, along with the tomatoes, but that is about it.
We had a hot spell (Spell? Who am I fooling? It's been this way since May) that has caused my new fall lettuce to get close to bolting and the carrots to grow at an almost impossibly rapid rate, so I will have to replant -- the lettuce at the very least -- towards of the month, and hope for cooler weather.
So far that's been my main excuse for not cleaning up the beds and clearing away all those cucumber, squash and pumpkin plants -- it's just been too hot for too long and getting out there to water the lettuce and carrots is all I can stomach right about now.
This is always a difficult time of year for me, as summer just doesn't seem to want to end, and I'm anxious to begin experiencing some kind of fall. That is probably the biggest drawback to living in this area. Don't get me wrong, in many ways it's the Promised Land, but if autumn is your favorite season you will feel shortchanged on a more or less annual basis.
During these 90 degree October days, it's also common knowledge the longer the heat holds out, the more abbreviated whatever kind of autumn we normally have will end up being.
In the meantime, my sweaters sit in the closet and it feels somehow wrong to be placing pumpkins and orange, yellow and red wreaths on the doors when it's still sleeveless shirts and shorts weather.
Even though we are clear across the country, we too are still experiencing hot summer days. I've never lived anywhere that has all 4 seasons but I know that fall felt the best to me when I used to travel to more seasonal areas.
ReplyDeleteOh,, DFW, I SO agree. We've scheduled more vacations in October than any other month, and always to cooler climates where the leaves are already turning and the fireplaces going! Summer in the south and southwest seems like the longest season of all.
DeleteWell you're always welcome in Ohio! We get no credit for what a beautiful state we have. But our falls are spectacular. Whenever Ohioans talk to someone recently relocated to Ohio, as say: "oh! Don't you love the fall?!" Even if it's -20 with a sheet of ice or 98 with 4000% humidity. I hope the rain is making your world more autumnal!
ReplyDeletePS- you can stay with me in Ohio if you ship out a crate of wine first!
You may very well see me, I'm going to have to bug out of these looooong summers at some point in my life and go to where autumn comes when it is supposed to!
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