Saturday, September 29, 2012

Potpourri


Weather Report: We had rain this week. Glorious, sweet, wonderful rain. Not a lot, mind you, but these days we will take any amount that we can get. The days are cooler, a welcome relief after the horrid heat of the summer. Autumn slowly descends over the Garden Spot, gradually coloring the landscape in the city and country side with yellows and oranges and burnish reds.


I drove to work Friday in heavy fog, enjoying every moment of it.  We don't get fog much, only a couple of days a year. Maybe I am weird or something, but I love those overcast, cloudy damp mornings  shrouded in the cold grayness where the landscape looks mystical and magical. Everything is soft and quiet, a good time to be peaceful.

Rain drops on roses
Fall Harvest Continues: Harvest is in full swing. The silage corn has been cut, and now the picking corn dries in the fields for a later harvest. The onions have been pulled and bagged, headed to market;  the sugar beets dug and shipped off the the sugar plant. Pinto beans are being cut, and the last cutting of hay is baled--except for ours. Rain and hay down in the field don't mix. So much for our third cutting.


 

Pickin' Peppers: Talk about harvest. I went out put the hens away and feed the horse (hubby is off fishing) then toured the garden. I've been waiting on these peppers to ripen. They won't win any prizes at the county fair, but they will be wonderful in salads and stuffed. The orange peppers take a long time to ripen; I was afraid that the frost would get them, but we haven't had a hard frost yet.



Trick or Treat?: I have been trying to break my magazine habit, but I gave in to the urge to buy Martha Stewart Living because the caramel apples on the cover called to me. Pet Smart has an ad for Martha Stewart doggie Halloween costumes. Cute little dogs all dressed up as alligators, princesses, pumpkins. spiders. So I decided to ask Max what he wanted to be for Halloween. He's never showed an interest in dressing up for Halloween; even though, he loves to greet the little ghosts and goblins at the door as they come to Trick or Treat. Perhaps this year, I thought, he might just like to surprise the kids, be a cool dude in a clever doggie costume.


Harry Potter, perhaps?


Waldo, maybe? Or Professor Max Von Muttenheimer

Actually, he wasn't very cooperative. No dressing up. He's a highly specialized bird dog, a hunting dog, he tells me, with a pedigree that goes way back to whenever. "No. No costume. No dumb glasses. No Harry Potter, no Waldo. Just let me be me, Max. I need a nap," he tells me. "I'm old and I'm tired, and I need my rest. Go pick on the cats." They have claws, I tell him. And bad attitudes. "Dah," he replies, as he shakes off the spectacles and falls asleep.

I never was good at dreaming up creative costumes for my little girls. Not so good for the dog, either.

Hope you all have a fab week.






7 comments:

  1. Hi momma. Max is such a sweet old man. I remember when we got him. A gracious tip from a last I worked with at the time. Max couldn't have found a better home nor my parents a more loyal friend. I am longing for the garden spot and my parents right now.

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  2. Oh Rain....sigh, what is that? Wish we would get some, but glad that you got some at least.

    I am totally a fog fanatic, have always loved it, and it's a great excuse to get out there and take the camera for a ride. We are like you, just a few days a year, if that, but treasured.

    Max looks quite fine without a costume...very dignified.

    Jen @ Muddy Boot Dreams

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  3. Yeah for the rain, now send some our way we could use it. Our harvest is pretty much done, except we did plant a very small fall garden, which is doing okay. Love the costume shots and that first one cracks me up.

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  4. Ann, so glad you got rain! I know what you mean about those misty mornings. I love a rainy day in my studio, painting. Solitude in the rain is very inspiring. Your hunting dog reminds me of maybe Snoopy, the Red Baron, flying ace. He's cute!
    Totally LOVE your pepper harvest!

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  5. We have not yet got any fog this autumn, we have that mostly in November. And I really don't like to drive at those days, because you don't see a hand for your eyes. But in a way I'm also weird because I like to go for walks on early mornings when it's very grey, wet and foggy. These great late autumn days still have to come! Nice pictures of Max who may need spectacles at his age, I think.

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  6. It sounds like you are enjoying fall! I like the Harry Potter glasses on your good working dog!
    Aren't you glad the leaves are turning FINALLY?

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  7. Your dog doesn't look too amused; I think he's not into the dressing up scene lol. Your roses look really pretty in the photos, they are great long flowering plants. In Ireland roses will often flower into Oct/Nov. Good to see the peppers, I didn't grow peppers this year.

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