“The RoseBouquet”

The closest we’ve had here to summer has happened in this very month, September. Even so, the signs of autumn are everywhere. The leaves are falling and the breezes, even in the sunshine, feel cooler, with a taste of winter to them.

I’ve already harvested all that there is left of the zucchini, the beets (I gave those away), the corn, and I’ve picked a whole laundry tub full of spaghetti squash. That’s about 20. I left three on the vines, because those vines still looked green, like there was life in them yet.


I’ve left the pumpkins and the tomatoes and the swiss chard out in the garden yet, but am watching for hints of frost.

I haven’t had time to cut and freeze the swiss chard but I plan to put the last of that away in the freezer to make borschts in the winter time. Oh, and the carrots.

The pumpkins need all the time they can get on the vine in the sunshine so they grow bigger and riper. Yesterday I saw one getting golden in betwen the green lines!

My tomatoes are doing the best! In the past my tomatoes were always slow to ripen and I had to usually bring them in green and lay them in boxes in the sunroom to ripen after harvest. But this year, my tomatoes are ripening on the vine. At first two or three a day, and then five to seven. Now I take a box along and pick 10 or more at a time! I’ve brought some along to the office to share but last night I made a nice cabbage/chicken and tomato borscht in the crockpot all evening. At bedtime I ladled it into jars and Tupperware containers for future meals. Yummy!! I also baked a kind of tomato/chili bread in a squares pan. I think I’ll double the recipe and add a few other veggies and things the next time I try that. It tastes good but is a bit on the dry side.

Well, with fall upon us now, I need to hurry up with my outdoor projects because once the snow comes, I’ll be restricted to the indoor jobs. I had two main goals on Saturday; finish the pantry shelf unit I’d started the Saturday before with some cast off shelving I had been given, and to dig up my front flowerbeds and plant some tulip and daffodil and narcissus bulbs I had got at a good deal.

The shelf unit was rather frustrating at first. Especially when I got the electric Skil saw into a thick pressed sawdust with a black veneer on either side, and it got stuck and the saw seized up just two inches from the end of the cut. Yucck! Frustration! Neither of my neighbours were out in their yards or handy, so I went and found a small hand saw of Dad’s and I “sawed away” at those last two inches with sheer will-power until I got through.

I had already screwed little ledges on the inside of each of the tall side boards which formed the walls of the unit. The first shelf board fit in as it was. I’d cut the second one and I decided that the third one could lie on top and overhang a bit. No other cut needed. I carried them all inside and placed the two tall end board beside the fridge and the wall, a gap of 30 inches. Then I put wood glue on the ledges and one across the top of the tall boards. Now I laid my shelf boards in place, made sure everything was snug and in place and went on to other work.

Hours later I came back and found everything holding well, so I wiped them down, and started loading up the shelves. So there! Conquerored that!

Digging up the impacted flowerbed beside my front steps was another case of hard work. It was hot outside, and I was only able to get about 3 x 6 feet dug up, working around the irises and mint already there. Before I got the bulbs planted, peat mixed in with the dirt and shoveled back my lower back (must be my T6 vertebrae) was screaming at me! I managed to finish with sheer determination, but once I had cleaned up my work from that section I decided that the rest of the flowerbeds on both sides of my sidewalk will have to come in stages. It will take more than one Saturday. Hopefully before the snow flies though!

I had meant to write my seasonal missionary prayer letter for my supporters the last two Sundays but I ended up resting mostly, besides going to church, so that project is still on hold. Aren’t you glad too, that God wants us to rest one day a week?