Notes From Zone 4

Yes, these are more pictures of our flock of turkeys, as seen from the picture window overlooking the balcony inside the house. I like the way the window frames them, actually, and at least they didn’t all run away when I grabbed the camera this time! I counted 17 of them out there. That’s a nice, healthy flock size. I haven’t done much in the garden these days. I go out and randomly pull weeds, and do a bit of clean up here and there, but I think I’m basically done for the year, until the leaves stop falling, at least.

It was chilly outside today, even though it looked beautiful. We decided that when cold white stuff came down from the sky, it was hail, not snow. It’s too early for snow. And it passed quickly. But I did get a bit of a start on putting in the edging where the grass meets the gravel. Something like seven down, ten thousand to go. The landscaper brought by 150 of these old cobblestones, and I think it’ll look great when it’s all done. Not sure how many I’ll be able to get in before the ground freezes, though. A bunch of wild turkeys have decided that our yard has yummy stuff in it. We’ve seen several flocks today. So cool.

Working outside helped my cranky mood today. It’s hard to stay cranky when it looks like this. I got a lot of winterizing done, too. Very productive. Everything that the frost last week killed is cut down. I pulled the dahlias, and have to figure out how to store the bulbs. I cut back all the garden phlox, which was a huge chore because I have so much of it. I brought some of the flowers in for a dried flower arrangement which came out really well. It’s starting to get dark really early already. I made dinner at 6:30 tonight, and it was already pitch black outside. Hard to imagine what it’ll be like when we do the time change at the end of the month.

We did have that hard freeze earlier this week. Then it warmed up for a couple of days, but there was definite frost on the car this morning, and many of my plants bit the dust, but not all of them. I covered a bunch up with clear plastic bags until I couldn’t stand the cold anymore, and the wind blew it all away. We did get outside and have a productive day in the yard today though. The list of fall chores is very long, and we got a lot of them knocked off, which feels great. I spent a long time carefully mowing the lawn. It might be the last time this season. I have to admit I’m impressed with how the lawn’s come out, finally. We seeded and weeded enough, that’s for sure, but it sure has paid off. Looks very healthy, actually.

As advertised, here we are at the first weekend in October, and we are predictably at full peak of fall color. It’s a lazy, rainy day, though, and windy. We have a freeze warning tonight. I’ve spent a lot of time trying to decide if I should go try to save some of my flower

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Marlow Village proper is absolutely at peak right now. There’s a musky scent all over, plus people are starting to light the woodstoves. Frank took me for another walk in the woods after dinner tonight. I told him that if it looks like this less than ten minutes from the front door, there’s no way he can claim we’ve cut down too many trees. I’m not sure he bought that, though. It is so pretty out here, and the smell of fall is definitely in the air.

I’m now operating on the theory that laying around recovering isn’t actually doing my incision any good. I’m getting all tight again, in a way that I wasn’t this weekend when I was up and about the whole time. Stretching to put up the fall flag was about all I could handle, though. Frank took

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