welcoming the cooler weather

So many pieces of our lives seem to revolve around the weather.

Either it is too hot to do something, too cold to do something else,

rainy enough to complain about, etc.

 

Fall is here.

In some places the frost is on the ground and the warmer clothes are out in force.

Here the air conditioner keeps spinning the electric meter, but maybe just a tad

less than a week ago.

The mornings are absolutely divine.

Cool enough that Friday morning I was suppose to jump in and clean the pool ....

and decided it was too chilly.

Certifiable wimp. Yes I am.

It was probably 72 degrees outdoors and I was not jumping in that water!

Thursday I just picked up some more chlorine tablets. We were out of them and I'm not

ready to put the pool away quite yet. I did hop in on Saturday and again on Sunday.

After buying the chlorine, I realized something.

Alyx's birthday has always been my mental winter grass planting date.

October 10th is so close I can feel it.

That pool is going to have to come down and make way for that

luscious green winter grass that leaves

wonderful stains on the knees of anyone who dares to crawl in it.

 

 

Fall brings something else along with it.

Cooler weather that allows the soil of plants to retain a bit more moisture.

Fall means flowers.

Lots of them.

This spring I snipped starts off a few plants around here, used some rooting

hormone and coaxed plants into growing.

I only have several that survived the beginning of the hot summer and

all the times we were out of town.

This week I could hardly believe my eyes.

My Mexican Bird of Paradise has sprouted a bloom.

Nearly made me shoot on over to Home Depot for some potting soil.

I didn't. I managed to restrain myself. Just barely.

Soon. Very soon. 

 

 The neighbors lantana needs a serious trimming.

There should be enough extra snippings there to keep me planting for quite a while.

 

I spent many hours of this weekend teaching English.

To tell you the truth (and Mr. Ahola would never believe this!) I actually prefer history.

Read back through this post and you'll understand why.

I much prefer to write in the bloggese. It doesn't matter whether a sentence is a fragment or not.

Because in this little corner of my world ... I make the rules.

 

I found clearance whipping cream in a can at Target and was just thrilled.

Finnish pancakes with strawberries and whipping cream was making my mouth water.

Until I came home and noticed why it was probably on clearance.

It was strawberry flavored.

Don't bother trying it.

I did make it to Costco and forgot the Ramen Noodles.

Never made it to the other stores I needed.

 

I created.

I crafted.

I found out that if you use the cover of your home made Mod Podge jar as a container

for dipping your sponge and don't wipe it off afterward ....

the lid is forever stuck when you recap the container.

 

Some of my kids gave me ideas of Christmas desires over the weekend.

So far ... they pretty much all qualify for needs instead of wants.

Makes me smile.

Real big.

 

Today my dear niece Heidi called to tell me she went camping over the weekend.

She caught a big fish. They ate it. She made smores.

I understood nearly everything she said.

She really shouldn't live 1800 miles away from me.

 

On that note .... have a terrific week and I'll go set my alarm for 4:30.