A Long Farewell to Summer

Often our hottest weather comes in September and October, but behind the heat there are always hints of approaching winter. Changing foliage is certainly one of them and it is the nighttime chill that triggers it. As several Blippers in several parts of the world (Northern Hemisphere anyway) have noted, I can feel the chill in the air in the evening and the morning presaging the change in the season. There is also something about the light that is different in autumn, and not just the fact that the days are getting shorter, they do seem to be 'drawing in'.

We like it because it's cool enough to sit on our porch for our evening wine and not just our morning coffee. Our newly arranged porch is becoming a favorite place to sit, something we envisioned when we bought this house but somehow never did much when it had a plastic roof, which trapped the heat and didn't really keep out the rain. When we realized that we would NEVER sit out there in the rain no matter how good the roof was  it wasn't too big a stretch to simply remove it. 

Prompted by a need to look for 'scare strips'* to hang around the veggie beds, we decided to revisit some old haunts this morning, starting with Flying Goat coffee. We watched the SMART train come and go and discussed the pros and cons of a sales tax rise to keep it going and finance its expansion, then we walked over to Western Farm Supply. This place has everything from a dog wash** to 'bag balm' (don't ask, just use your imagination), pet toys to baby chickens. After a fumbling description attempting to describe what we were after, we were directed by one of the unfailingly friendly army of staff to the section dedicated to deterring varmints. This is where we discovered that this mylar-like tape is called 'scare strips' We'll see....

We then walked through the dreadful mall and up the main downtown street lined with restaurants with sidewalk tables  serving everything from hamburgers to Puerto Rican, Indian to Burmese food. Oh, and Acre  and Peet's Coffee and the original Russian River Brewery. It was a perfect Goldilocks day to be out and about...not too hot, not too cold. We wound up at Sift, where we bought a pretty box** full of macarons and whoopee pies (just don't ask....)

I've been working on a new uncooked tomato sauce to make with our bumper crop of tomatoes. Our neighbors are coming for dinner and if it passes muster, I'm going to make more and freeze it. One can only eat so many tomato sandwiches for lunch, delicious as they are....

*  glittery tape traditionally used in the vineyards to keep the birds away from the grapes.
** see extras