First Frost, let the celebrations begin!

The frost on the cars this morning told me it was a good thing we got that garlic planted yesterday.


And.....this would be a great cake for me on Thursday this week.....it's from Pink Cake Box in Denville, New Jersey. That would be 18 E. Main Street, Suite 101.
Phone: 973-998-4445.

First celebration is tonight with friends Kathleen and Donna. There'll be martinis for sure and a lot of catching up to do.

I think I'm taking this birthday very well.....so far.

Fall planting

Time to plant the garlic for spring. I've always wanted to try growing garlic because we use so much of it and I also love the garlic scapes that first appear in spring.
So, I bought garlic from Karen and Mike of We Grow Garlic in Wisconsin. It arrived promptly and today we cleaned up the garden to get ready for the planting.















Karen and Mike have over 50 varieties of garlic and many were sold out when I finally got to the site to buy.

I planted Italian Late and Silver White. Both are soft neck varieties.

After planting, Pentti watered them in. BTW...when we cleaned up the tomato plants we collected a few green tomatoes. We haven't had frost here yet. Those Yellow Pear tomatoes were the most prolific I've seen. That variety is a keeper for next year!

Crisp and Cool....a beautiful fall day.

I got a late start this morning. Sarah and Eric were here and had to leave at 6AM. I don't usually get up that early! So I crawled back in bed for a couple of hours.

When I finally got my soap batches done for the day it was 3 PM and I just wanted a little cat nap. But I'm trying to be diligent about walking every day...so I dragged my self out to the park.

Getting there is half the battle.
How could I not enjoy a walk through this!

Now if I could just figure out how to work my ipod I'd be all set!

Fall colors and friends

Big batches of soap went down this weekend so that I could have a couple of days off to spend with friends who are visiting from San Francisco.

Joan and David arrived Sunday night and it is really good to spend time with them again. Haven't seen them in over a year!

Dinner out on Monday and Tuesday Joan and I will have lunch with our librarian cohort from Southampton. The three of us worked together for years and now that we're all retired...we are many miles apart and seldom get together.

This weather is gorgeous and Joan is enjoying our lovely fall colors! A short but sweet visit!

Food and Farming: our best shot?

For weeks, I've been reading and hearing about the greed that continues to cause the failure of our economy. Two articles in Wednesday's paper gave me cause for hope.

Can urban agriculture and local sustainable agriculture start to turn us around in this country??

This article about local agriculture helping an ailing town in Vermont.

And this one about urban farming right in Red Hook, Brooklyn....Sarah and Eric's neighborhood. I've been by this farm many times and had opportunities to sample the produce at local restaurants.

There has been a movement toward local food and renewed interest in farming. But is this what might ultimately save us? In our family, we've made plans to expand our small vegetable garden next season, join an organic CSA and buy a freezer.

I'm not the only one moving toward renewed self reliance when it comes to our food supply.

I see a lot of press about home food preservation, organic farming, local grass fed meat, and farming initiatives like the ones in Vermont. We started out as farmers in this country....maybe that's where we'll end up.

Getting off the soap box now. Here's my contribution to home canning for this year....

last rose

Just when my garden looks like sh*t at the end of the season....
full of weeds and plants that need to be trimmed.....these arrive:

Mallow. (these reseed and come up where they please)














One more yellow rose:














And can you believe it.....an IRIS in October??

Nea

Finally got to meet the grandpuppy today. Eric and Sarah came up for a visit with Nea.













She's a sweet dog....even though my cats were not convinced.