Thursday

A transition day. In between the time I was away along with the days I used to recover from being away, and the time I will focus extensively and almost exclusively on my family as Ed packs up and takes off (not yet but soon) on an adventure (which could last anywhere from one day to many weeks). It's still sunny and mild, I'm still tickled by the way August is unfolding here in south central Wisconsin, and I'm still enjoying the calm after the chaos, but increasingly I'm thinking about and getting ready for family stuff.

Of course, cleaning the garden is always the first task of the day. Today's photos reflect the obvious: the flowers are fading, autumnal crispness is setting in. 

(the best view for me right now is the one that I get when I first step outside...)

(lilies that are repeat bloomers are a real prize now!)

(find the froggie!)

(hungry girls want their breakfast)

(so beautiful in the morning sun...)

Breakfast -- on the porch of course.

And then I do a big time mowing job on many of the overgrown paths and on some of the areas that we dont usually mow at all at the height of the season. It's always a toss up. The tractor mower makes the job fairly easy but it's bumpy and I spin the machine around enough that I can really make myself sick out there. And the question is -- how much to mow? Three times each year (in spring, during summer, and once at the end of fall) I do a pretty extensive run through the farmette lands. I'm aware of the fact that I am disturbing the peace that reigns in the tall grasses among the insect and reptile population, but to promote a healthy meadow or prairie, you really need to cut back some of the mess every once in a while.  So, I'm thinking today is a good day for the summer clearing. No way do I like anything about mowing down tall grasses, which forces a restarting the darn machine again and again, as it stalls over the excessive load, but I always feel better once it's done. I leave enough for the bugs and froggies, but I also clear away spaces that are sprouting mountain-sized thistles and burdock and honey locust saplings.

And in the afternoon, Snowdrop comes over.

(she wants to check on the watermelon growing in our veggie field)

It's Thursday, so... local farmers market day! Snowdrop loves everything about it: the size, the foods, the familiar faces. She talks us into a cherry pie, a bag of cheese curds, and a pint of small tomatoes. (She devours all the tomatoes in the five minute ride home. You'd think I hadn't already given her her afternoon snack!)

Evening. I drop the girl off and return to a garden touched by that gentle light that comes only in the very early hours and again just before sunset.

 

 

The garden is ready to call it quits for sure, but the process of winding down for the season is slow. There will be weeks of blooms still. Perhaps not as lush or abundant. But if you look carefully, you will continue to see flowers somewhere in the farmette fields. Until the first frost, when it all shuts down for the year. (In Madison, the first frost usually comes in the first days of October.)

Light supper tonight, last day of Convention streaming, making me feel even more like we really are transitioning to early fall already. People are posting fist day of school photos! Wow. Wasn't the longest day of the year just yesterday? Amazing!