Sunshine and a day for outdoor chores

 We are having quite a beautiful autumn. Sure, we get some rainy days and the nights are frosty. It still seems pretty mild and sunny from my perspective.

We had a great long chat with my dear brother last night. He is coming to terms with the tragic death of his eldest son on Thanksgiving. He is hoping to go to Port Colborne very soon to spend some quality time with his other two boys, reminiscing and looking at photos. Their own private celebration of life.

I try to spend time outdoors puttering around. There isn't much more I can do for the gardens. The garlic is mulched with a thick layer of leaves. There are still a few carrots and turnips in the west side garden box. This brings to mind a chat I had in the little grocery store the other day. I had bought a larger turnip to add to our stash. The woman behind me in line asked me if I called them turnip or rutabaga. (I call them turnip). We agreed that the small white ones are not very nice. The clerk proceeded to tell us how her mother cooked them and how much she hated them. My dear old dad liked them that way, calling them Tatties and Neeps. Only in a small town small grocery store would you get that interaction. 

Yesterday I pulled all the vines and trellis off the back porch. I stashed the trellis under the porch, but they probably won't be used next year. We are going to tear off the big porch and rebuild. The new stairs will be located where we had the trellis for hops. The back porch is 25 or so years old. It is huge, about 15 by 15 feet. We don't use it because it gets too hot once the weather warms up. Many of the boards are showing serious rot. We will tear it off and salvage what is still "good". The new porch will be about four by 15 feet with the clothesline at one end and the stairs at the other.  I will have to think about relocating some precious plants in the spring.

I've painted the fresh wood around the new patio door. Terrible paint! It's like milk, impossible to NOT have splatters. After that nonsense I had to wash the glass.  I just wanted to get the wood sealed. I think the back of the house is going to need a total coat of paint next spring.

I watched an aspen shedding it's leaves in a sunbeam just now. It looked like gold dust falling.