My favorite season is off to a fantastic start, with misty mornings burning off into warm, clear afternoons. Sadly as the days are growing shorter and cooler, this week also marked what will likely be my last big harvest of the year from the veggie garden. I’m already looking forward to planning out next year's garden, learning from some of my mistakes and making improvements where I can. After seeing just how parched my open, sunny backyard became this August, the most important improvement I have planned is installing drip irrigation. I’m hopeful that going in to next year with a reliable watering system in place will improve my harvest, especially for my water-loving crops like squash & cucumbers. Because, let’s be real, even working from home with constant access to a hose to keep the garden happily hydrated, my efforts were inconsistent at best. I'm also planning to grow corn next year, and to avoid providing the deer with another snack, I'll need to come up with a cover for that bed tall enough to accommodate towering stalks of corn. Lots of prep and planning to keep me busy through the winter!
Of course, with so much to do in the yard, I spent the entire weekend away from home. Saturday was spent at my sister's, belatedly celebrating her birthday. Early in the pandemic, the my mom, sister, and I started a new birthday tradition of gathering for lunch followed by an afternoon of weeding for the birthday girl. My sister has a smaller, and much tidier, yard then I do, so after the ease of weeding her yard, coming home to my own weedy mess of a backyard was rather overwhelming. Naturally this meant I was happy to postpone tackling fall cleanup in my yard for another day, and plans to meet a friend for one of my favorite fall hikes provided the perfect distraction. Park Butte never disappoints, but in such a difficult year it was so comforting to return to an old favorite. Mt Baker may have been shrouded in clouds, but we weren't really there for the views anyway. We were there for the blueberries, and this year Baker certainly did not disappoint! We came home with nearly three pounds of tiny gems of deliciousness to stash in our freezer. Definitely excited to be going in to winter with a particularly well stocked freezer!
Autumn bounty - definitely going to miss all this fresh produce!
My sister requested a andscape for her birthday, and it was SO soothing to come back to painting!
Sandwiched between the layers of clouds
