If you weren't a fan of the upper Midwest before, surely after this Fall you've come around -- it's been such a glorious set of weeks!
But this morning, we did finally wake up to a significant frost. The leaves of the geranium outside were cold and brittle. I felt I had let the big potted plants down by leaving them outside.
Most of the spreading nasturtium folded over and gave up. But on the upside, it was a beautifully foggy morning...
Hoarfrost. Always breathtaking.
...even as the trees still scream Fall!
[Inside the house: Ed, I think we finally caught that mouse!
Is the trap shut?
It is!
Did you shake it to see if it's there?
I can't! You shake it!
What, first crippled chickens and now mice?
Fine. I'll shake it. ...I feel it! It's there!
Ed picks up the trap and looks inside. No it's not. Failed again.]
I coax him into running an errand with me. I need his ratty pickup truck...
[Inside the truck: Well, I think the mice have found the cabin of this truck too...
We look at the shredded New Yorker on the floor. Yep.
Check the glove compartment, will you?
Fully expecting a mouse family to come scampering into my lap, I gently open the latch... Nothing.
We'll have to set a trap here too.]
I need his strong arms too, to help me with the lifting of someone's treadmill off of Craigslist. Goodbye, old stationary bike with broken electricals (hello buyer who picks it up this afternoon anyway), hello new and equally boring equipment for increasing the level of activity around here during the bad weather days.
But this is not a bad weather day. Breakfast bathed in sunshine!
And so long as we're doing things together today, Ed -- how about a walk in our the park just east of us?
We talk about entrepreneurial ideas and ventures. This is my weakness -- I don't think in those terms, ever, even as he spins in his head what ifs and ventures and adventures in ways that boggle certainly my mind. Every once in a while, he nudges me and I try to think broadly and turn small projects into big plans and this is indeed what happened today. Remember this post next year, as I unveil my small idea turned large by Ed! It will have been shaped by the walk we took today.
In the meantime, since I try hard to write about things that are, today, now, rather than about things that will be, let me end with one more photo from today's walk. Glorious indeed!
But this morning, we did finally wake up to a significant frost. The leaves of the geranium outside were cold and brittle. I felt I had let the big potted plants down by leaving them outside.
Most of the spreading nasturtium folded over and gave up. But on the upside, it was a beautifully foggy morning...
Hoarfrost. Always breathtaking.
...even as the trees still scream Fall!
[Inside the house: Ed, I think we finally caught that mouse!
Is the trap shut?
It is!
Did you shake it to see if it's there?
I can't! You shake it!
What, first crippled chickens and now mice?
Fine. I'll shake it. ...I feel it! It's there!
Ed picks up the trap and looks inside. No it's not. Failed again.]
I coax him into running an errand with me. I need his ratty pickup truck...
[Inside the truck: Well, I think the mice have found the cabin of this truck too...
We look at the shredded New Yorker on the floor. Yep.
Check the glove compartment, will you?
Fully expecting a mouse family to come scampering into my lap, I gently open the latch... Nothing.
We'll have to set a trap here too.]
I need his strong arms too, to help me with the lifting of someone's treadmill off of Craigslist. Goodbye, old stationary bike with broken electricals (hello buyer who picks it up this afternoon anyway), hello new and equally boring equipment for increasing the level of activity around here during the bad weather days.
But this is not a bad weather day. Breakfast bathed in sunshine!
And so long as we're doing things together today, Ed -- how about a walk in our the park just east of us?
We talk about entrepreneurial ideas and ventures. This is my weakness -- I don't think in those terms, ever, even as he spins in his head what ifs and ventures and adventures in ways that boggle certainly my mind. Every once in a while, he nudges me and I try to think broadly and turn small projects into big plans and this is indeed what happened today. Remember this post next year, as I unveil my small idea turned large by Ed! It will have been shaped by the walk we took today.
In the meantime, since I try hard to write about things that are, today, now, rather than about things that will be, let me end with one more photo from today's walk. Glorious indeed!
Intriguing.
ReplyDeleteTo be continued.
Yes indeed. In a few months!
DeleteCannot guarantee results, but a few pieces of dryer fabric softener tucked into a glove compartment and in the cab may keep mice away. It seems to work on our semi-urban mice here in town, cannot predict what a more rural mouse might do. One year they made a nest in the glove compartment of my Honda. Ever since adding this trick, no nest -- even with kiddos who I let, sometimes, eat in the car. Happy Fall!
ReplyDeleteThank you. We'll try anything. We have clans of country mice vying to get into any warm spot at all.
DeleteI never realized how much plants did feel until I read "The Secret Life of Plants". I'll bet your plants did not feel abandoned but maybe they even understood.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what to do about mice. We had them when we lived upstate, NY in an adorable one room school house. One seemed almost cute until the cousins and relatives started arriving. We were only there through the winter because the open land across the street had been sold and started to be developed. The school house was wonderful. I loved the huge windows facing south. But wanting to live in the country and then see it start to be developed was too much.
I hope the treadmill isn't that boring.
Now about remembering this post for a whole year....Nina I can't even remember what I had for lunch yesterday.
Not a whole year, Nora. Just a few months and I will jiggle your memory!
DeleteFunny you should mention development. We live in fear of that!