Morning Glory

It's Fall. Summer foliage and warmth have been slowly slipping from us. Just this past week, nighttime temps started diving. I added a blanket at night and in the morning, the leaves responded with new bursts of colour.

On Friday, I came out the front door as the sun cleared the hills in back of our house. The light flared the trees into vivid colour; their fallen leaves blazed up and glowed from the ground below. It was breath-takingly beautiful.

Halloween is this week -- the kids are so excited!

Tackle It Tuesday: Yard Helpers

This past weekend, as I was struggling to wake up enough to drink my coffee, the kids were pinging off the walls. That's how my daughter wound up making pancake batter from scratch from the first time. It's great that both kids are old enough to learn how to do more things by themselves.

James kept begging me to download yet another Minion App for his iPad.
 - "Not unless you do a chore," I told him. "That app costs money."
 - "Yes!" he cried. "I do a chore! I'm gonna get a Minion app!"

Okey-dokey, time to come up with a chore he can do with minimal supervision ...

I told James he could rake the back lawn, but that he first needed to change out of pjs and into clothes. He took off for his room at warp speed. I took this opportunity to suck down half a cup of coffee.

James' sister, meanwhile, was starting to ask if she could do a chore. She suggested sweeping the back patio and I took her up on her offer, directing her to first change into work clothes.

To make a long story short, we spent over an hour in our backyard, raking, sweeping, and tidying away a whole summer's worth of stuff. During rest periods, we'd drink some water and talk about what we'd tackle next. By 10:30, we'd filled a green garbage bin and learned more about the arts of raking, sweeping, and sorting discarded items among our 3 waste bins.

As the fruit trees' leaves are just starting to turn colour and fall, there will be ample opportunities to become proficient at these tasks.

Do you have a project or accomplishment to share?  Head on over to....

The Fuzzy Kid

This guy keeps life interesting in our house. He's a sweet adorable menace of a kitten-cat who will turn 1 in September. Oh how he wants to be outdoors, but we're keeping him in. It's just safer that way, and our outdoor cat has taken down enough birds for them both (and an awesome tally with the rats from the field behind us).

Today he wanted to bug his mistress, James' sister. She was picking every ripe grape from our vines.

Yes, they are very early this year!

Wordless Wednesday: Cherries

We have a cherry tree in our back yard. Over the years, it has produced an astonishing amount of delicious fruit. Some years we can't keep up with picking them. The past few years the weather hasn't cooperated.

This year, however, was just about perfect. We were able to harvest the cherries before the birds could swoop them up. James liked that some friends from school came over to pick and and bring home containers full of ripe cherries.

I love cherry time. It's my unofficial start to summer.

The blossoms are beautiful and fragrant.
When the petals fall, it's like it's snowing.

Bumper Crop year

These cherries are BIG!

We picked 2 of these and that was maybe a third of the 2009 crop ...

Summer is here!

Come join the fun over at Wordless Wednesday on 5 Minutes for Mom!

Catch Up, With Random Garden Shots

I still feel like I am playing catch-up, what with all the curve balls life's been tossing our way since last Fall. While some things have settled down, others keep breaking down in ways that take the Mickey out of me.

When that happens, it's time to step outside and breathe, remember what I have, and let some things go ...

SOOC Sunday: Sneaky Fall

Went out back for the first time in a week or so and instead of late summer I found:

What happened to Summer?

Sneaky Fall!


Linking up once more with Murrieta 365 for some SOOC show and share, where it's all straight-out-of-camera (SOOC).

                                                                 

Special Exposure / Wordless Weds: Baby Steps Garden

I am excited about having more time to focus on gardening. This year, our community made it easy to try planting a food garden at home. Oh, I had dreams and plans. I bought some supplies at Home Depot, seedlings from the Farmers' Market, and attended the excellent Master Gardeners' presentation at our local library branch.

Then came the end of school. The heat. The badly situated 5 days on vacation. James being sick upon our return. What's left? The convenient hole in what used to be our font lawn, left from a tree that fell over a few years back. Yes sirree, I seized an afternoon to spade up the clay-like soil, amend it, and plant out last few Survivors.

I am happy to say that we have a pumpkin, watermelon, pepper, and some peas clinging to life and making a go of it. The kids are excited to see them slowly taking off, and have been helping me water.

I even bought some sunflowers to cheer them along:

For more images from the heart and to share some of yours,
visit Special Exposure Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Special Needs.






               and ... Wordless Wednesday

Oasis

Where I am right now:

Listening to the quail, tuning out leaf blowers and other stress.

SOOC Saturday: Spring

The rains are easing up. We have sun shine by day and frost happens some nights. An hour before dawn, the roar of a dozen prop engines roar to life to protect budding grape vines and wake us up. The kids get excited about Easter eggs. It's Spring!

Our cherry tree out back is in bloom. Despite the drought and severe pruning of last year, it picked a great time to blossom out and looks to be in good shape. I am fascinated with the petals and starting to dream about cherries in another 6 weeks.

I glanced out the window one evening while preparing dinner and saw this sky.
I shot out the back door to grab these pics.
The kids are used to Mom chasing a photo op.

And here are a few from James' class party. I used the magic lens for some of the egg shots.

Eggs in the carton, with magic lens.

I stripped the colour from the one above. Not sure which one I prefer.

All Spring, straight-out-of-camera. "Hoppy" to participate in the SOOC action at Marvelous Mommy's blog. Come on over to see more or join in!