Brrrrr

It's cold.  How cold is it?  Well, the birdbath was frozen this morning so I went out and poured some warm water into it--which then proceeded to freeze too--so around noon I went out into the 32 degree day, tipped out the barely thawed birdbath, put in the heater and taped it to the pedestal, put a rock on the heater to hold it in place, and refilled it. Then I filled the bird feeders and put out a couple extra ones (with seeds squirrels don't like) for the winter. THIRTY-TWO degrees at noon.  Ack.  I took down the patio umbrella to store in the garage and put the knocked down patio table into the shed.  I'll put the chairs in once I take out the snowblower but I won't do that until the neighbor gets his snowblower tune-up shop in his garage up and running.  He's a whole lot less expensive than the commercial guy plus he's willing to troubleshoot it if I need help in the winter.  (my toes are still cold)

I got four nice butternut squash from the garden, five really but the fifth one wasn't mature and looked frozen when I found it on Sunday so out it went.  In fact, I have my doubts about the smallest one in the picture.  I see a cauldron of squash soup in my future, which may be tomorrow if I don't warm up soon.  Maybe I need to put on a sweater...


We had my homegrown carrots for supper the last two nights.  They were delicious and so fresh they didn't need peeling.  Yum.  I might reconsider my decision not to plant them next year.


 
The other day I took a bag of peels over for DIL1's chickens and got to keep the eggs.  I almost hate to crack them open they're so pretty.






October 31--Henri Cabot, The Peacocks.  Tally sat squeezed between Aunt Minnie and Grandma Irene in the third pew from the front of church.  She was sure that the Mass would never end.  There had been standing and kneeling and singing and praying for at least an hour and Tally couldn't see it ending anytime soon.  She had prayed and sung along and bobbed up and down with the congregation but now Father Loeffler was giving his sermon and he was really into it.  He had started talking about forgiveness and tolerance and gave no sign of slowing down, much less stopping.  The sun had shifted and was shining through the stained glass beside their pew.  A shaft of the bluest light covered Tally's knee with an unearthly glow.  She slid her hand into the light and out.

And that's all she wrote.  Well, that's all I wrote.  I went down to the bookstore/cafe where I like to write yesterday and had absolutely no luck putting words on paper, not on the screen either.  *sigh*  I hate when that happens.  This dramatic change of season, light, and temperature is really getting me down.  I think I'll go run some errands.
--Barbara
P.S. I worked on the afghan edge again last night and I'm still not all the way around one time.  Maybe once around will be enough... twice at the most.