It's Shaggy time!

 September 18, 2024

Just did a little foraging for breakfast this morning...Shaggy Manes are coming up all along the side of the garage in the gravel which is now growing up in clover, so they are very much cleaner as they emerge.

The frost scare earlier in the month had us covering the tomatoes, peppers and melons for three nights. Now the temperatures have swivelled in the opposite direction...the days are sweltering with a humidex closing on 30C. (86F) It is just not what one expects in September! It has been quite a stretch of these hot days, which the weather forecast says will continue on into early next week. Not ideal temperatures for working outside!! The nights are only getting down to the mid teens, (60F), so the windows are wide open. The Whip-poor-wills are still here and calling evening and morning, and the Barred owls are a little more vocal of late.

We are getting a number of different bears showing up on the trail camera placed by a pile of apples we put back in the bush, raked up from under the two trees closest to the house. Bird Cam. in the oak tree gave us a surprise...

This is our resident Broad-winged hawk. After this shot, he returned at a different time and proceeded to preen, fanning his feathers out at odd angles, but the lens was fogged up, so not shots good enough to post. 

Another visitor to the oak limb is this little guy...

There are many shots of him running up and down the limb, as well as more of the flying squirrel who seems to spend a lot of time doing the same. The limb must be a good 'jumping off' spot for him. 

The squash and pumpkin harvest is in...cleaned and lined up in the storage room.

I like growing things like this that don't require immediate processing! They will keep while I tend to stuff that won't keep.

In the front porch kitchen is a roaster oven of pasta sauce simmering down, covered by cheesecloth. It is a new to me recipe that I'm giving a try. It seems a better way than standing over the hot stove stirring. The dehydrator has been busy drying apples, and I think just one more load will complete our winter supply. They are delicious just eaten as is, but re-hydrated are good in baked goods and one favourite way of eating them is cooking them in a winter morning's pot of oatmeal.

The garden is being slowly dismantled. All the tomato plants are out except the cherries which are drooping with clusters of fruit. 

Asters, planted here and there in the gardens, are now blooming and adding colour to the predominant yellows and oranges of the tall marigolds.

I still have the bulk of the pepper patch to process, broccoli is keeping us in side shoots, and there are lovely turnips rutabagas and cabbages still to come. Potatoes are waiting patiently in the ground for the root cellar temperature to cool down into keeping territory.