Autumn Vignette

Although it is still getting warm during the day, and we’re still able to have our “wine hour” outside in the evening, the mornings are crisp and chilly with a definite feeling of autumn in the air. I’ve been told that it is the temperature change that causes the leaves to turn and I’ve seen the crowns of a few 
Chinese Pistache trees turning red. The bees seem to get angry as their hibernation time nears and OilMan and I have both been dive-bombed and stung. The woodpeckers are busy collecting acorns and stashing them in every available hole. We had all the holes they have already made in our house filled with some impenetrable substance and the senior Dave said the woodpeckers would’ break their beaks’ if they tried to peck into it.

Although sometimes he manages to convince himself that his ‘temple has been violated’ and wallow in misery, OilMan is actually healing well and getting out and about. He felt so much better than he thought he would after the first three days, he overdid it a bit and had a slight relapse, but nothing that a long nap every afternoon can’t cure. It occurs to me that he would probably sleep better at night if he didn’t sleep every afternoon, butI haven’t convinced him.

Peter and I are working on his college entrance essays. Peter doesn’t like to write and I think the suggested topics are enough to kill any desire any kid might have to write, but I’m assuming he’s allowed a fair amount of latitude and am trying to come up with ways to make it more interesting for him. Of course I love to write, while his greatest strength is math but  we stagger along trying to fathom what might catch the eye of someone reading thousands of 350 word essays a day.

Today’s picture is a vignette from a Sebastopol garden center where we went in search of a specific plant which Dana would like to plant in front of the house.