Enjoying Our Indian Summer

I keep reminding myself to move indoors and paint, but our weather for this week is an unprecedented week of Indian Summer. Yesterday I had the doors and windows open in the afternoon, which I'll continue through this week. I had postponed raking leaves in October because of our drought, not wanting to put any more stress on the trails near the woods,. Now I'm nearly scrambling to get some leaves raked and stashed in their cages. The leaves are a key ingredient in our composting practice for our gardens, and we need as many as we can rake. Actually, we don't have to worry about leaves here at Camp Colegate at all, because the winds quickly dispose of them over the flat fields. We can never quite figure out where they end up, some in the pond and the rest to the whims of the winds.

Years ago Bruce strategically placed these chicken wire enclosures along the trails, positioned near the areas of greater leaf fall. I truly enjoy raking leaves, but have never derived any pleasure from bagging or dragging them too far. This system works out well for me. The leaves stay contained in their cages, pack down over the winter with the rain and snow, and can be easily removed in the spring and added to our larger compost pile. I top them off with the bedding from the Chicken Chateau, and they then undergo a quick compost, ready for the garden.

There's something therapeutic and restorative about being outdoors in good weather, raking leaves. I take in the bird songs, the wind, marvel over the warmth of the sun and the cool of the shade. The year Mother died within two weeks after Bruce's Father, I couldn't find time to rake my leaves. We had Bernice to settle up at Cape May, family coming in to visit, attorneys to meet with, and paperwork to process. When I was finally able to make it outdoors, raking leaves was the perfect activity to find peace, reflect, and restore.

While I'm thinking about my terrible habit of procrastination, there is another chore/project that has been on reappearing on every daily list: repotting my plants. This is one activity that I detest, but as the water was running straight through my plants, some were sporting brown leaves, and others were growing better outside their pots rather than within the parameters of their pots, I knew I had to act, not rewrite on my to do list. So I spread out my newspapers and brought the plants in one by one, divided them and returned the smaller, stronger members to their clean pots with new soil. The heinous chore is over and done with, and I'll mop the kitchen floor later this afternoon. I understand why the wealthy have their potting sheds for these chores. The plant rejects are now gracing the compost pile. Please take notice of our Christmas Cactus, which I should rename the Holiday Cactus, as it has set forth and beginning to open up. I think the Rabbit's Foot and Holiday Cactus like where they are - Perfect Plant, Perfect Spot. Makes for beautiful plantings.

Rabbit's Foot, Christmas Cactus, and Begonia

Closeup of Christmas Cactus