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.  

A Chilly Taste of Winter

It was a chilly start to the day, 4C with a bitterly cold wind from the north-west - that's straight from the Arctic! The sun was in and out and did help a bit but the temperature barely budged all day.

   James and I had fun at "Sing, Play, Learn" and on the way home stopped off at the park. No one else there (no surprise there, it was freezing) James was dressed for the weather in his winter jacket, hat and mitts but, for some reason, I had only worn my light jacket and froze. I couldn't wait for him to decide it was time to head home but he was quite comfortable and enjoyed himself on the gym equipment and in the sand for nearly an hour. I will know better next time!

   Petronella tonight and we did some fun dances. We finished with a challenging 5-couple dance which I am glad I stayed for. That's the first time I've made it to the last dance - a big improvement in my stamina!