Yesterday, I was sitting in the front yard peeling garlic cloves for the Great '52 Tomato Sauce Canning Fall Festival, and the 'light' is now fall - the angle of the sun now comes over behind the big trees so the house is in shade until 10:00 am, and I'm starting to see that deep blue in the sky. All my fall flowers are starting to go off - mums, agastache, Pitchers blue salvia, fall roses, and so on.

The weeds in the veggie garden -oh my. But at this point, it doesn't effect the main crop, but its an effort just to pull off the seed heads in a futile exercise to keep them in check for next year, then see the cloud of thistle seed come blowing in from the west. Dill 'weed'. Appropriately named.

Good News!

The sun rose today! It is a new sun, tho'. I could recognize that by the apricot and magenta clouds that it brought with it into the sky.

I think the plants may know the difference. You could see that the tomatoes were a little flustered since they have used up just about all their excuses for not ripening fruit.

Steve

Wow the sun rose? That is good news :-)

I have quite a few things planted around the house that need for the sun to return to them. All so patiently the front yard tomatoes and everything along the north fence in the back have been waiting for their time in the sun.

I'll miss my pre-work morning garden walkabouts, but will be glad when this heat breaks. I'm ready for fall.
The tomatoes are blushing at last, except the roma's, stubborn things!

Barb

The sun this time of year here in CO is so intense! And with not much rain hitting us in Westminster, I'm needing to water much more often (have sprinkler system for vege garden and grass, but my flower beds I water the old fashioned way). Seeing signs of distress in the lawn and a few plant in the beds. :^(

But on the positive note, our more stubborn tomatoes are now starting to redden up!! Going to be busy canning soon :^)

I also just heard that the Japan earthquake may have shortened the earth day because it changed our axis!
"...the Japanese earthquake should have caused Earth to rotate a bit faster, shortening the length of the day by about 1.8 microseconds (a microsecond is one millionth of a second..."

nasa.gov

So NOW I know why my days have been going by so much faster! ;^)

Fascinating stuff.

Marj,

You and I think alike, it is easy to see that.

I'm told that help is available.

Steve

On the day I started this thread, the sun rose at 5:54am and set at 7:50pm.

This morning, it will rise here at 7:04am and set at 6:04pm. The daylight is rapidly slipping away . . .

By spring, I will need some time in the morning to adjust to having more light:

(You can click on the painting to listen to the original songwriter play the music. ;o)

Steve

Sorry. Wikipedia tells us:

"'Morning Has Broken' is a popular and well-known Christian hymn first published in 1931. It has words by English author Eleanor Farjeon and is set to a traditional Gaelic tune known as 'Bunessan' . . ."

Rick Wakeman "adapted" the composition and accompanied Cat Stevens in the popular recording.

Steve

Steve, it's beautiful. Thanks for sharing it!

Barb

Thanks for posting that song, Steve!! I used to love listening to Cat Stevens sing it - had no idea it was originally a Christian hymn! Makes it even better now, IMO, knowing that - it's a lovely song.

Well, I'm pulling the plug on the vege garden tonight. Went out and picked the last of the best looking tomatoes and a couple of peppers. Leaving one large pumpkin and the gourds to dry on the vine a bit more, and the potatoes can stay in the ground for awhile. But no more watering as the rest are obviously on their last legs. Another harvest season comes to an end, for us anyway. So now to enjoy the canned fruits of our labor over the winter, and make plans for the next plantings!

Happy Harvest everyone.