SeasonaliTea

Today, this funny farmer was pondering on the seasonalities of things. In fall, our tastes seem to change from the pastels and lights of summer to the warms of the autumnal palette. I've noticed this especially with regard to tea. We're big tea drinkers down on the funny farm; breakfast tea, iced tea, tea time, evening tea, and soothing teas. We drank lots of fruity teas during the summer. Some of our favorites were iced strawberry tea and mango black tea. In September, we turned to apple cider tea with a drop of caramel sauce, and our fav, for October, is the pumpkins spiced tea with a dab of brown sugar.

Our lovely weather is about to undergo a drastic change, according to the weather guy on TV. Nighttime lows will be hitting down in the thirties, which means it's almost the end of NW gardening season. We're going to try to extend it a bit by covering a bed or two with raised row covers. We're hoping to get a few onions, carrots and brassicas over the fall season. Wish us luck.

The summer garden season has been a wonderful one. The hits of the garden were the tomatoes, beans, tomatillos, peas, and (groan) zucchini. Our flops this year were the corn and strawberries. The corn needed much more sun and the spring was just too wet and cold for the strawberries. Lessons learned for next year:
1) Move the corn to the sunny spot.
2) Plant the lettuce where the tree shades in the full afternoon sun.
3) Compost, compost, compost!
4) Move the beans to the back beds so they can run the fence line.
5) Plants loads of marigolds.
and finally
6) Only 1 zucchini plant!

A tree in summer leafery

A memory of a tree in summer, such a nice memory on a grey, wet, cold, rainy day. Another storm is supposed to blow in tonight with high winds and up to 5 inches of rain! Urban flooding and power outages are expected. A life in the great northwest. We had to find all the flashlights and read the instructions on the kerosene heater, just in case.

In other news, Ariana completed her two month long quest to find a pair of waterproof shoes. No more wet toes!

In the cozy corner, we watched a video (yes, VHS) of Moonstruck tonight. Just so we could hear, "when the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie...."

Brand new voter and cozy corner moment

A ghostly tree in the morning mist.

Ari is a fully fledged new citizen! She voted for the first time, via absentee ballot. It was a very long ballot this time with the national, state, and local folks and a bunch of initiatives.

Alex had his theatre program today, and it was a marathon day for Anni. She had her vision ed, OT, and speech today. I made it to the gym again (yahoo!) this evening.

For dinner tonight, we heated up the unused sage turkey mix from the ravioli the other day in organic turkey gravy and served it up with freshy mashed yukon gold potatoes (CSA), brussel sprouts (farm stand). Terrific.

And a brand new feature - Cozy Corner: warm stuff to keep folks warm when the thermostat can't go beyond 62 (our setting for the evening/night in our continuing efforts to be a bit greener). Today's cozy moment was the fluffy robe right from the dryer - toasty!

Tomorrow - a project update!