Fall

I think Phoebe is sad because the pool is closed. Or maybe she's just enjoying a warm sunny day. Indian Summer!  I see from the picture that I still need to cut the dead flox and cone flowers and pull the lily stems. If the weather holds, I'll get to it. If it doesn't, the snow will cover it up. No worries. My slight incapacitation has helped me to lighten up. That's a good thing. Even better, I'm not harping at Tom or Nathan to do everything I see needing done and can't do myself. I got that out of my system the first week of crutches. Now I'm settling into a more reasonable mode. Here's my trick. Don't look at what needs done. Bury your nose in a book or waste time on the computer. It's working for me. I also found myself a part time job that requires being on the computer 4 hours a day. So I'm plenty busy, and some things just have to be let go.

Besides, it's not like nothing's getting done. A little reprieve from the cold wet weather is giving us time to finish the outdoor projects. Nathan has taken charge of tree nursery chores, I pulled all the dahlias (before my shoulder injury), and Tom took care of getting the leaves off the lawn. There's the upside of my physical woes!

Tom took care of all the leaves this year. He mowed and chopped, raked and used the leaf blower, and finally burned. They are gone, all gone. And I didn't help. Whoo-hoo! We have a lot of deciduous trees in our yard so leaf raking is a huge job. Here's a peek at some fallen leaves, and this is just one corner of the b-i-g yard. These pictures illustrate another way I got a break because of my injuries. Nathan helped with babysitting. (Audrey is going to miss her big buddy when Nate heads out west later this week. I'll miss him too!)

In case you're wondering, Tom doesn't have to work all the time. This week he dressed up in camo and went out in the woods looking for turkeys. He called this one in...and... boom. We'll be having fresh turkey for dinner this week.