Autumn mosaic

"Winter is an etching, spring a watercolor, summer an oil painting and autumn a mosaic of them all."- Stanley Horowitz I put the chickens and ducks in the garden for their own protection. Before I did so I harvested the last goodies it had to offer. One of those goodies was a sweet potato…yes one. When the slips came in we were having a lot of rain and the garden was too wet to get into. By the time I got to planting them I was down to four slips. The plants gave small tubers but only the one worth eating. I made it my lunch and it was good. I pulled the turnips, parsnips, carrots, dug some potatoes, got a rutabaga and made a pot of beef stew using these root veges. A loaf of homemade bread made a great meal yesterday when high temps were only 54 with lots of wind. The wind however did make it a great day for catching up on the laundry. And that same wind brought down a lot of apples from my squatter’s right tree and my black walnut tree. Today Mom and I dug one row of potatoes and spread them out in the garage to dry before storing them. On the walk home, I gathered up my stash of butternuts. I had been picking them up and piling them on top of a stump….a squirrel decided I didn’t need nuts so he absconded with some. I noticed my pile dwindling and decided I better grab them while there was still some to grab! While I am outside, I am amazed at the myriad of colors. In Spring I look for the first green blade of grass and then green is the dominant color all summer. But autumn brings a different color with each turn. I think its God’s way of giving us a good dose of color to get us threw winter when it is only white, gray and brown. It is like he takes his palette and dumps all the colors down on the leaves. Right now we are supposedly at 40-70% in color. This poor forsythia doesn't know what season it is!I will take it for as long as it lasts and then when they have fallen I can look up into the woods and see the deer and turkeys walk the lower ridge line. This weekend, #1 daughter and Sir T are coming down to walk the higher ridge to get a look at falls splendor from the top of the mountain. I have recharged the batteries in the camera, so I am ready.