Monday, October 31, 2022


It's Halloween here today/tonight.  Jack and I carved one pumpking yesterday and I carved this one this morning.  The big guy said Jack ran into daycare this morning and didn't even say goodbye.  Some kids were already dressed up and the big guy said you could cut the excitement with a knife.  I imagine he'll be bouncing off the walls by the time he goes out to trick or treat.  

The yard is cleaned up and it's supposed to snow tonight, as it so often does on Halloween.  I'm ready.  


Big red turned out to be big orange/red and is so beautiful.  It'll be a beautiful tree as it grows.  We still have five more trees that have to be cut down in the yard, due to disease, but this maple will hopefully get quite large and fill in for all those lost trees.

Two years ago I collected oak acorns and tried to grow oak trees come springtime from those seeds.  I had very poor success.  However, there must have been a squirrel burying acorns in my backyard that same fall.  I have four or five small oaks growing in my garden.  I'll dig them up in the spring give them to a coworker who has an acreage.  He took two of the oaks that I grew from seed and they're doing well.  

Yesterday was lovely and warm and I spent some time outside, tidying up, putting things away, moving leaves onto my garden beds and poop scooping.  The sky was blue and it felt like a gift, so late in October.  I've been trying to spend as much time outside this fall as possible, not sure why, but it feels like every moment spent outside is important this year.  Perhaps I feel like this every fall but this year it feels different somehow.

Doom and gloom still exist in the news, Russia, nuclear weapons, lies, deaths, elections, twitter, etc, etc, etc., but outside the seasons still pass.  The downy woodpeckers show up for the suet every fall.  The chickadees are back to feast on sunflowers seeds.  The trees turn colour and lose their leaves, leaving us a beautiful carpet of colour to walk upon.  The sky is still blue.  The sun and moon still rise and set.  Mother Nature continues on, regardless of how we fuck things up.  Thankfully she is much wiser than we are.



17 comments:

  1. Such autumnal colors! Beautiful! I've heard that growing oaks from acorns can be surprisingly tricky. I think they just like to be out in nature when they get started.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oaks don't grow well here either, very slow growing. And don't we all like to just grow as we're supposed to?

      Delete
    2. We have three mature burr oaks on one edge of our front lawn, and there are little oaklings galore. They'll be the ones that escaped the determined rakings of our raccoon night-visitors. -Kate

      Delete
  2. Autumn is so pretty there. I can't fathom the idea of snow on Halloween. It is generally so warm and humid here that the kids roast in their costumes. Not always. But usually. It will be that way tonight.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It usually snows right around Halloween. It's not terribly cold though 4C which is fine. I'll think of you in Florida sweating tonight:)

      Delete
  3. The changing of the seasons is comforting in such a chaotic world. The maples along my street turn red (north side) and orange (south side); it's very odd. Hope Jack has a great day in daycare. Very exciting times for little kids! Costumes and candy, woo hoo!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. He had a great day at daycare and trick or treating. No supper was eaten but teeth were brushed well before bedtime:)

      Delete
  4. I would have loved to see all the kids at daycare all dressed up!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Me too. I don't get there much anymore because I'm house arrest with my foot.

      Delete
  5. Get that last bit of Vit D before Winter sets in. You do live in a beautiful part of the world.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you and yes, I'm enjoying my natural Vit D plus I take some pills all winter.

      Delete
  6. When you said that "he" will be "bouncing off the walls by the time he goes out to trick or treat", did you mean Big Poppa or Jack?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jack. Poppa has a sore back and I'm incapcitated with vertigo right now. It's great getting older.

      Delete
  7. A lot fewer wild animals around though, including birds; I notice it here. So much for denying the effects of climate change and habitat destruction; it seems we thought it might be happening on the other side of the world but we were immune here in rural Saskatchewan. It's sad to witness, and worries me sick -- in spite of the many wonders nature continues to offer. -Kate

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Mother Nature is also happy to get her freak on and do weird shit to us, thanks to climate change. Even though we're far north, climate change is affecting me and you. I've never seen such warm weather this late in October.

      Delete
  8. We have two large-ish maples, neither of which is dropping leaves. I wish they would get on with it so we can deal with the leaves before the weather gets really awful. Our neighbor gets part of them dumped in his garden plot and part of them go under the rhododendrons. The skies have been beautiful this fall.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Here's how I (inadvertently) grew a small forest's-worth of oak trees:
    1) Put houseplants outside in spring. 2) Wait until early October (i.e., after acorns have started to drop and squirrels are burying them all over the yard) to bring houseplants in for the winter. 3) The following spring, notice 10" oak seedlings growing in every houseplant pot throughout your house.

    ReplyDelete