As summer ends and we charge full sail into the chill-swelter-chill pattern of the valley fall, I am looking forward to throwing out flowerpots full of overgrown foliage, and replacing them with fall mums. On my drive about last week, I found a few nice looking pots of mums at reasonable prices, but chose to wait one more week, just in case.... so today, I am planning on a run to a few nurseries and groceries stores, to see what is there.

My beans are starting to die, and dry up, and I always look forward to tearing them down, later in the fall, to harvest seeds for next year, but also to gain back a few of my yard from the deck. Its weird how in June, I can't wait for them to grow to their magnificent height of 12+ feet, and then 3 months later, I am chomping at the bit to tear them down. Strange beings, we humans are.
My tomatoes were very successful this year, as opposed to last year. Linda Young told me that if your tomatoes don't turn red its because they didn't get enough water during the summer. Well, I am sure she is right, because this summer I watered far more regularly and all my tomatoes turned red. The tiny tims were sweet and plentiful and I will grow them again for sure.

My front flowerpots were nice, but needed more water than they should have, and next year I am going to look into a different mix of soil than I used this year; one with more peat or something that holds moisture better. Too much peat isn't great either.

First week of school is over now, and I am looking forward to a regular work day, and somewhat normal bus dismissals this week. On Friday, a somewhat normal day, we sent a little primary boy off with his mom to the hospital with a crayon tip shoved way down deep in his ear canal; a grade 3 boy with a possible broken rib, or at least bruised shoulder/rib, after he fell on the playground. A head check after lunch produced a case of lice in one of my little grade 1 girls whom I have had frequent checks with last year. And I helped a little primary boy pick out a change of clothes from my goodie dresser of extra clothes after he forgot he needed to go pee while he was playing outside with his classmates. He was so funny, when I showed him all the pairs of pants, he selected a bright red pair of girls pants and happily put them on because he was wearing a red shirt and thought that that would be the best pair. This was a case of not letting FASHION get in the way of playtime outside! His teacher wrote a note home explaining why it is important to send a spare set of clothes into school with your little primary each day or else we dress them in girls clothes!!! Nah, kidding.

My Garden today....

Shade baskets by the firepit....

the Sedem is changing color. A sure sign of cool nights.

Sonny still enjoys his new spot