Heavenly Skies

The rains came on Wednesday and continued through Thursday and Friday. This morning it was very foggy but when it cleared, the sky was blue, the clouds were fluffy and the air was clear and lovely. The transformation was good for both body and soul. 

Ignoring the newspaper and the articles about climate change and the fact that there is no longer a 'fire season', meaning, I suppose that it is always fire season, we decided to go out and enjoy the morning. As we walked over to Dana and Jim's we marveled at how gorgeous the Chinese Pistache trees are. Not only do they turn brilliant red and yellow but they are now sporting clusters of peppercorn like red berries. Even though the leaves on the ground were wet, a lot of people were out clearing them up now because they haven't been able to get outside to do it for over two weeks. It's supposed to rain again in a couple of days.

OilMan's approach to clearing leaves is to to pick them out of the bushes and the rocks and the steps one leaf at a time. This isn't as crazy as it sounds, since it is impossible to rake them and, despite the fact that our neighbor is obsessed with her loud gas powered leaf blower, we try not to use one if we can help it. I don't really mind leaving them, but OilMan really hates it when they land on his plants. 

When we lived on Magnolia street we had locust trees with leaves which, despite their small size, caused big brown spots on any plants they landed on. I think this was the beginning for OilMan.and his dislike of leaves and we had a very small garden so the leaves weren't that much of a problem. Here, our vertical garden is bordered by oaks. There are several varieties, some of which are quite beautiful, but neither of us really likes the California Live Oaks which have small, very prickly leaves. They are non-deciduous, but some leaves inevitably fall and Ozzie hates to walk on them.

After cutting back some grasses growing too close to the house, I decided that since I was never going to cook another turkey, I might as well give this one a proper sendoff, so I put the carcass in a big pot of water with carrots, celery, and onions to make a broth.  

I'll strain it and put it in the fridge and tomorrow I'll make a turkey soup. The last one ever....