Odd you should post this,Suzy...I just realized today that I had missed the equinox and I'm usually very aware of those.

None of my friends mentioned it...I wonder if we all missed it.

We're still using AC, my small tropicals are still outside, PokeSalad plant still has green berries, Sumac still dusty green...still summer here. No wonder I didn't notice the first day of Fall. josh

Except for the days getting noticeably shorter, it's hard for me to think of fall either. Highs are still around 90 and it's very, very humid, although it refuses to rain despite teh fact that we need it. Oklahoma is hogging all the cool fronts that couuld bring us z taste of fall.

No,I didn't miss it. For some reason both exinoxes and solstices are imprinted in my brain, like family birthdays. Sunday,early in the morning, I walked around the property and through the woods looking for all the autumn signs,a ritual for many years. It was depressing. I've never seen it so dry and "crisp." There are cracks in the ground,everywhere,and everything is shriveled. The leaves are brown, withered and falling with every breeze and I'm wondering if we'll even have the typical beautiful fall leaf display that brings tourists from all over. Everything is stressed and the wildlife are venturing beyond their usual places in order to find water.

I didn't miss it, either, but the weather sure felt like the middle of summer. I don't have as much as woods as Marda has, but the trees that border the property are as dry and crisp as tinder, and it's nearly impossible to pull a weed because the ground is like concrete.
I do think we'll get a good fall display, as we have in other dry years, but it will may be a little different.

We have a birdbath on our deck and it gets used as a watering hole by a variety of critters: birds and squirrels, but also insects, which always comes as a surprise.

There must be water up at our springhead, as I have seen deer coming up from the grotto at dusk, but it surely isn't finding its way down to the house. We have had several cloudbursts here over the last two days, but good steady rains would have been more beneficial. I have postponed all garden work because as Pidge says, even that loamy plot is hard as concrete and I can't get the cages and poles out of the ground. The rains, however, came at an optimal time for my super late crop of corn. The ears are swelling and maturing now. I'm almost afraid to pull back the husks to check on how the weather has affected the kernels.

I sure didn't miss the equinox, i'd been counting the days...a long, hot, dry summer, a WAY overly ambitious garden and toooo many projects, combined with my lousy genetics had me ready for a change of seasons.

But I've got the honey harvested, tomato juice done, and maybe one more batch of sauce to go, the chicken house is finished, except half the shingles and some paint...and nest boxes...and better roosts than the skid they're using now...and on and on....

My late corn did pretty well also, but i only did three rows and didn't have the energy or time to set up the electronet fence, so the coons got most of it. They got 5 of my chickens, too, despite the electronet(which claims to repel dingoes and wolves in addition to the masked marauders). Anybody have a good recipe for raccoon?? I'm thinkin shish-kebabs or maybe coonburgers? Coon pie?

Still need to freeze the last of the green beans, pull up the dry beans (canellini, black, yin-yang and soy), want to make some sauerkraut... wish i could get the gardens cleaned up before snow...just once in my life...

THe flocks of migrating robins are frequent visitors to my couple acres of grass, and the bluebirds, goldfinches and doves are already in their winter flock-together mode. Add power-washing the feeders to my To-Do scroll...Kerouac's got nothin on me...well, except that he got somewhere with his...

Oh well...gotta take time to smell the grandbaby, only a couple more swimming days left, I'm just waiting for her to get up from her nap so we can go outside and play on this gorgeous fall afternoon. She's just like Grammy, well-insulated against the cold water, the pool is an inviting 66 degrees and nothin could keep her(or me) out of it!

lynnie b

It's awfully good to see you post, Lynnie. I often wonder how you are doing, and see as per usual you have irons in fires. I also can't picture you with a grandchild in tow, but it's a lucky babe to have you for a grannie. I always smile when I think about choosing instar as a web name. My mind immediately turns to whiteflies, because that is when I used that word so frequently.

The store isles are what have been alerting me to the approach of fall this year. Candy for trick or treaters started piling up in the endcaps a month ago. We never have beggars here, but I buy some anyway and the dh and I always consume it all each week and I buy more. I usually run out by All Hallow's Eve and would have to offer balogna sandwiches. Hershey's is too good for somebody else's rug rats anyways. LOL. Chocolate has a short half-life in my house.

My adolescent g'kids stopped by today with their stepmother. It's so funny to call her that. Everyone should have a step mother like her, she's as far from that stereoptype as one could get. They were at loose ends for some family entertainment today and my g'son offers to build the campfire and set up for a weiner roast at their farm. Boy, am I ready to kick off autumn with that! For once in my life, I decided there was nothing I had to cook, and my offering to the food kitty shall be deli doughnuts, buns, weiners, apple slices with caramel dip, a jug of cider and perhaps a stoneware jug of hot chocolate for when it cools off. Last but not least, all the makings for endless s'mores.........that ultimate childhood messy, gummy, gooey campfire treat.

We have cause for celebration. Our spring is now running again.

Lynnie B you were in my thoughts today. We were driving down to Huntington and passed a sign for the Dan Quale museum and for some reason it reminded me of you and of Spike. I know why i thought of Spike right away but im not sure where you fit into the picture. Oh well its great to see ya!!!!

Howdy Pam! Hope you're being a good girl (healthwise, i mean!) No mystery...Spike gave me one of those well-endowed DQ dolls, too. For those who don't remember the story, Quayle was in i think Chile, looking at some native art for sale, one of which was a fertility figurine with a rather large phallus that flopped out when you tried to pick it up. DQ found this quite amusing, and said something to the effect of, 'we should get one of these for the kids'. THe locals wasted no time in creating a similar doll that resembled the Veep...well, at least in the face...;~) Spike picked up a whole box of the things somewhere, and contributed one to the white elephant swap at the Chicago area GT. I still have that gold vase/urinal thing I got.

Geez, suzy...i knew i was a pest, but g-dang!;~)

I don't think i've ever seen any instar of whitefly but the imago...and I'm far from done changing. If I ever think I'm all done, just spray me with malathion, wouldya??

It must've been a lot drier down ther if your spring quit. We had a pretty serious drought here, but the groundwater was fine.

Great minds think alike...I'm waiting for the night to come a bit earlier, I've a huge pile of wood just right for a bonfire. Miss Lisette would love a weinie roast and toasted marshmallows i think! No sweeties for me, i'm fighting off diabetes. ;~(

The trees are coloring up early, it makes me feel so restless, and wish i was 'on the road'...not this year...truly too many irons in the fire!