Two Good Tasks Accomplished

   I thought I was going to have a quiet restful day today but that's not how it turned out at all.

   The morning temperature of 4C was a surprise, and it rose to 13C by noon. This tempted me into tackling a job that I have been postponing for months - painting the trim in the front hall. When I had the painter in during the summer he left me with both primer  and paint and the suggestion that the bare wood around the front door (probably been like that for 4 or 5 years) should be painted. I think he was angling for the job at the time but I didn't take him up on it.

    So, first I sanded the wood and wiped it off, then applied the primer. Actually, I sanded all the trim in the front hall and will paint everything the same colour. With the day being relatively mild I was able to leave the door ajar until the paint dried although when it comes time to apply the next coat I may not be so lucky.  I will tackle the final coat on Thursday (James is here tomorrow, not ideal time to have cans of paint out!) weather and other conditions permitting. I am excited to see how it looks after all this time with bare wood.

   In the afternoon I dug up some mint and cleared a patch to put in next year's garlic crop. I was reluctant to dig into my current crop for the cloves as they are so tasty compared to the store bought variety, but the thought of the crop they will produce next summer made up for the loss. I still have three heads left but they will soon be gone. The onions I dug up in September are long gone. Next year I will plant a second crop of onions to harvest late in the Fall.

In the Minus Temperatures

    Woke up to a chilly morning and it hasn't warmed up much since. The sun was shining, though, so I was able to get out in the garden - all bundled up - for the last grass cutting (I hope!) of the year. In fact, at one point I took a few minutes on the lounger and the sun felt positively warm on my face and hands!

   There are still a few roses on the bushes but I trimmed everything else back, pulled up the remaining Swiss Chard, rhubarb and other leftover plants as they were all looking rather sad after the freezing night temperatures. Next job will be to rake the leaves off the grass but I will wait until the trees are quite bare.

   I made some butternut squash soup for lunch today, and had it with a cream cheese and cucumber croissant and also a couple of the yellow cherry tomatoes which have ripened since I brought them indoors a couple of weeks ago. There are still lots, so I hope I can eat them up before they expire. Rainbow trout for dinner tonight with some vegetables from last night's stew. Dessert will probably be a couple of the Hallowe'en candies! Didn't have many visitors last Thursday due to the wet windy weather.

    I've started a new book - "The Signature of All Things" by Elizabeth Gilbert. I think I will enjoy it. She wrote "Eat, Pray, Love" - a memoir, but this one is a historical novel. Should keep me interested for a couple of weeks at least.

Jack-o-Lantern

   Almost missed out on buying a pumpkin. The first grocery store was sold out but, luckily there were plenty at the other store and we picked a big tall one. James was rather repulsed by the slimy contents but we managed to get it scraped out without too much "Yuk" factor! 

  Soon the face was carved to our mutual satisfaction and without any blood shed. All it requires now is a candle to light on Thursday to welcome the "Trick-or-Treaters".  

   Tomorrow there's a Hallowe'en party at the church. James will dress up as a kangaroo and I'm sure will pig out on Hallowe'en goodies (wiggly worms, pumpkin cupcakes and anything "cho-cho" (chocolate). No lunch will be required after that!

The Last From the Garden

   Woke up this morning to great gusts of wind buffeting the windows and rain lashing down. It's also colder than normal, more like the end of November than October. I will be praying for an "Indian Summer" next month. The rain has brought down lots of leaves so soon it will be time to start raking -too wet right now though!

    Yesterday I picked the last three eggplants and a bunch of Swiss Chard. That's probably it for the garden vegetables although I have some green tomatoes ripening in a sunny spot indoors.