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Thursday, November 26, 2015

Natalie, redux

She's back!
Disappeared back in April.
Replaced.
Replacements gone.
Sienne getting quite fat, getting the entire packet of good stuff catfood she used to have to share.
Then last Friday, there she was.
I wasn't even home for it. JP was over to feed Sienne while I was away for the weekend, so I didn't see her until Sunday.
But it's true: Natalie is back.
She's not saying where she was all that time, and she's willing to go out at night and when I leave for work in the morning. She's made a cozy nest on the disused rugs I have in the cellar. Sienne is not very welcoming at all. I hope she'll get over that, after all, she's known Natalie all her life.
So every evening it's a question.
How many cats tonight?

Friday, November 6, 2015

Here we are: summer is Over.

All the leaves are off the apricot and the apples and the cherry at the back of the yard, though some of the other trees are hanging on to their color for a while longer. Lots of red from the cherries this year, and the weather has been good for a colorful leafshow.

They say it’s time to trim when the sap falls, so I was out there last weekend cutting a lot of the branches that reach straight up tall where you can’t pick any fruit. There will still be plenty for the birds, don’t worry about that. Now I have a pile of branches to cut up for bbq wood. Before I have too much fun with that, I need to remember to reserve a couple of slim, forked branches for holding up tomatos next year.

The garden is pretty much wrapped up. Some salad and herbs remain, and potatos. I love harvesting potatos; it’s like a treasure hunt for gold nuggets in the earth. But then I have more potatos in the kitchen than we eat in a month, and it’s better to leave them in the ground. I’ve tried keeping them in a cool, dark place, and they are ok in the fridge but my fridge is not very big and there are all those tomatos in there already. I tried the basement, but it’s not cool enough down there and they end up with sprouts 2 feet long and no potato left in the potato skin. So now they stay in the ground as much as I can resist digging them up.  In September, all the plants had withered away & you knew the spuds were ready. Since then it’s been cold at night sometimes, but not that cold and a dozen or so potato plants have come back up as if it were spring already.


The tomatos should move out of the fridge this weekend, if all goes well. About 2 weeks ago I harvested all the green ones and pulled the plants out. It was threatening frost, so it was time. They’ve been getting ripe in the kitchen, each red one going into the fridge. Sunday is tomato canning day, and anybody still green will miss the boat. I have stores of sauce already, and these will be tomato chunks for chili over the winter.