Fall Is In The Air

 It's been a hot dry summer here. We had many days over 100 degrees and we've had no rain in a couple months. The grass is brown and crunchy and the trees are droopy. My rock garden looks terrible. The plants were very stressed so Rob started watering them daily for the last couple weeks. He let the hose drip a little and the bees and butterflies loved the water droplets. This morning we got a little, and I do mean little, thunderstorm. It got very dark and very windy and the thunder rolled. There was some rain but not much. Still, the trees seem grateful. I noticed this afternoon that the Maple in my neighbor's yard has turned a glorious orange. 

My big Maple is still green and hanging onto most of the leaves but there is a tiny touch of color in parts. The leaves on most of the trees have been falling like crazy for the past week without any color change at all.

So what have we been up to? Well, since it was so hot and dry we started putting out a big bowl of water for the wildlife. The raccoons come by and soak in the cool water, then they sometimes nap on the porch. 

 We have three baby opossums that showed up about a month ago. They come every evening, sometimes together, sometimes separately. At first the raccoons were afraid of the tiny creatures and would run away, but now they're used to each other and often share the platter of kibble that we put out each evening.  Here is one of the babies eating and having a drink.

 All three have grown significantly in the past month and from the amount of kibble they pack away they'll all be nice and fat for winter. The raccoons are also putting on winter fat. One of them, Gabby, is huge, much larger than Mackey.

Today as I was reading on the porch I had a visitor. He was poking around in the hedge, then went into the yard looking for bugs and worms. Last year we saw a pair of large armadillos in the yard but this one is pretty small. This year's baby, perhaps.

Here, inside, where the air is cooler and water more plentiful, the Christmas cactus are flowering. I thought the big one was going to die earlier in the year. It got all droopy and the leaves were soft. I cut away some dead parts and babied the rest of the plant thru the summer. It paid off. The plant looks healthy again and look at all the flowers this week.

One of the new little plants is also in bloom. The other is waiting, presumably for Christmas.

 

 I have a new plant feeding mixture that my houseplants seem to love. Rob eats a lot of bananas. Now he puts the skins in a jar and adds warm water. After they sit for about 48 hours I mix them with plain tap water and feed the plants with the banana flavored water. They have responded well and I don't need to water as frequently.

 I lost my knitting mojo earlier in the summer and now I'm trying to get it back. I thought Bernie looked lonely sitting on his bench with only a squirrel for company, so I made a Ruth Bader Ginsburg for him to chat with. I'm not thrilled with her but she helped me get back into knitting, so there's that.

Mackey has a story for you but it'll wait till tomorrow. We'll see you soon.