Did anybody notice where they went?
This little bunny is wondering. I think he must be a member of batch #6 from the local bunny population. We haven’t seen any this small lately, so perhaps they are done making batches of baby bunnies. He was sitting next to the sidewalk munching weeds.
They're starting to turn white now, starting with their back feet. The grass next to the sidewalk is no longer so long and green, and we rarely see the rabbits grazing, mostly they are just running through the yard at high speed.
The last time we had rainfall was a thunderstorm on August 11th. A bolt hit the ground very near us, like flash/BANG! and then all was quiet except for a brief downpour. After the storm passed by, this red pickup truck belonging to one of the local government agencies that fights forest fires drove into our property, turned around by the garage, and then honked their horn as they were driving away. This was puzzling behavior, and the next day we found out he was alerting us to a fire about a mile from us, sparked by the thunderstorm. It was a teeny fire, less than an acre, and was pounced upon by the fire fighting forces in the neighborhood. How we were supposed to interpret the honking horn was interesting. It could have meant, “Don’t shoot!” or “I’m so lost.” or any number of things. He could have stopped to talk but didn’t bother.
A rainfall now would be very welcome, and hopefully tomorrow we will see some without a thunderstorm. That sounds a little too exciting until the woods are all soggy again. The grass and trees are extremely dry and fire danger is high.
August 14th we had a full moon, and a pretty moonset as the sun was coming up.
Because Dan woke me up in time to see the moon go down, I decided to make blueberry pancakes. Not sure why that should have followed, but it seemed like a splendid idea at the time.
Pancakes with maple syrup, and a pot of tea.
We finished a project in the house during late August and early September. Well two projects actually. The most important project was to put the windowsills and casements around two new windows. We had suspected that flies were able to get into the house around those windows, and evidently that was how they were invading the house. Much nicer now! And our favorite project was to put an island in the kitchen. This is the first house we’ve ever had that has an island in the kitchen, and it is just so useful.
Standing in the doorway to the pantry, the island is right in the middle of the floor space in front of the other kitchen cabinets. On the other side of the island are two seats, and I've already gotten to try them out for working, while making breakfast on the cookstove. I'm so looking forward to winter! It's going to be a wonderful place for the computer.
A bowl full of Josta Berries. This is our new favorite berry, a cross between Gooseberry, and Black Currant. We planted some in the garden from cuttings, and hopefully they will survive until next spring. When we looked today there was a huge pocket gopher mound almost burying the one Josta Berry plant that looks alive.
I made a couple of pies from the Josta Berries we got from the same woman who gave us the plant cuttings, and two small jars of jam which we have yet to try. That will be a treat some day during the winter. I’ve been in a baking mood lately.
Brownies, with a vanilla frosting, and a dark unsweetened chocolate glaze. Yummy doesn't begin to describe this.
Yesterday was the Autumnal Equinox, the start of my favorite time of year. Happy Fall! To celebrate, I used the last of the summer peaches and baked a pie. Today it is 86F and feels anything but fall-ish. Tomorrow is supposed to be 15 degrees cooler.
This is what peach heaven looks like.
Two boxes of JH Hale peaches. They are supposed to be best for canning, but we love to eat them fresh or bake with them. I peeled and froze most of these two cases, so that we can have baked things all winter.
I've been practicing with making gluten free pie crusts and have finally found one that we like. It also makes the best pinwheel cookies with cinnamon and sugar from the leftover pie crust dough. It's almost worth just making the cookies.
Ward wanted me to send him a piece of pie. So, here you go, ET! Wish you were here.
This morning Dan and Mishkin had a mouse rodeo, the first mouse in the house in several months. Mish had been keeping the mouse occupied in the sunroom until Dan woke up. Teamwork! Mish doesn’t even get perturbed any more when Dan evicts the mouse; he just walks around the house very pleased with himself, afterwards.
Here he is after evicting all his toys from the tunnel, reclaiming his ownership. We throw his toys inside and he yanks them out and spreads them around the house.
I have several knitting project that I’m ignoring at the moment. I’ve just started working on a needlepoint kit I’ve had in a box for at least 12 years. I will make a pillow out of it someday. It’s nice and mindless, perfect for working on it when watching TV.
An old-fashioned map of the world. But now I'm in the mood for working on needlepoint and have other projects in mind now that I'm working on this one. There is always a danger in looking in boxes of stuff.
It’s been relatively uneventful around here since the middle of August. We just had one bit of entertainment, that being a visit from friends who live on the west coast. Now we’ll just settle in to getting ready for winter. We stacked a cord of firewood this morning, bringing our woodshed up to roughly 2/3rds of the firewood we need for winter.