It's One Of Those Mostly Plant Days

Here's how you can tell fall is coming along here in North Florida- the pecan trees have lost most of their leaves and the sky is so very blue. 

Those trees are oaks and they hold on to their leaves until spring when the new leaves push off the old ones. I love this. These trees can make acorns, sustain the old leaves, and create new ones, all at the same time. They've dropped a good number of the acorns but we'll be getting more until December, probably. It seems to be a good mast this year but as I recall, we got an usually large crop of acorns last year too. I hope this is a good thing. I just looked this topic up and learned something new. A mast year occurs to create "predator satiation," which is basically when there is a synchronized event among the trees to produce a huge number of acorns in order to satisfy the animals which eat the nuts and leave enough for new trees to emerge from the acorns the predators can't manage to eat. 
Like- the number of acorns one mature tree drops can go from around 2,200 to 10,000! 
I had no idea. I've been living around, under, and among these trees for at least sixty-five years and really never wondered why some years were just so good for acorn production. 

I know that many wild birds and different mammals are happy when this happens. I just read that acorns make up to 75% of white-tailed deer's diet in late fall and early winter. 

I swept a good many of those acorns off the front porch steps this afternoon. One of my goals for the day was to get the front porch and swing porches swept and then to water the plants. 
This I did. 

Some happy, happy begonias. I have some of the same variety in a pot just a few feet away but further from the edge of the porch, thereby getting less light and they do not have that beautiful red color to their undersides. 
The older I get, the more I believe that the proper light has more to do with plant health than anything else. 

I spent a lot of time outside today, just slowly doing a little of this, a little of that. I cleared more of the pumpkin vines from the garden and did a little weeding in there. I have to say that I am vastly disappointed at how all of the greens I planted a few weeks ago are doing. 
Which is to say, they are not doing well. 
I have no idea what's going on. I know we've had some very dry conditions but I've carefully considered that and watered the garden when it got dry. And then of course we had inches and inches of rain before and during Isaias's journey to the west of us. Perhaps it's simply time for us to give the garden a break, till in a massive amount of mushroom compost, mulch it good and let it sit until spring. I'll discuss this with the man when he returns. 

I also did a little invasive-plant weed pulling in the front yard in the area inside and to the right of the gate which is my ongoing, never ending, always interesting project. That's where I pull crocosmia, briars, pyracantha, and another plant that I can't remember the name of but which grows quite large and all of the sprouts are connected by roots so tough I often just end up cutting them which does no good whatsoever. Today I discovered that a new thing has sprung up there. Deer tongue grass. Supposedly it's a native, but mostly in Canada, and although it is not invasive in that area, guess what? 
Yeah. 
Well, we all need a hobby. 

But I like being on my knees in that area. I find bricks in the dirt and once I found what I think may have been part of an arrowhead or spearhead. I still have no real idea what I'd plant there if I ever did get it cleared out but at this point, it's a moot point. 

Inside the house I did two loads of clothes which will probably be the last laundry I need to do for at least several days. I also gave our bedroom a good sweeping which produced an oddly satisfying amount of dust and cat hair. At least enough to form a kitten out of. 

Mostly, I've just enjoyed being alone and being quiet. The only person I've spoken to is Maurice and please don't try to tell me that doesn't count. She and I have quite extensive conversations, mostly about why she doesn't need any more treats. She insists she does. I tell her she doesn't. 
And so forth. We are both quite certain of our positions in this discussion and we are both quite verbal. 

Mr. Moon has made it to Minot, North Dakota where the entire group has met up, both the flyers and the Gun Dog Express drivers. They will be traveling to Saskatchewan tomorrow, good Lord willing and they aren't turned back at the border. 

I'm going to heat up some of the soup I made last week, thinking I'd be taking it to St. George. I thawed it out two nights ago and added the coconut milk to it and we enjoyed it immensely. Well, Mr. Moon mostly enjoyed the naan I made with it immensely but he managed to eat quite a large bowl of the soup. 
I have to tell you that using the Seminole pumpkins made the soup so much sweeter and oranger and just all-around more wonderful than either butternut or acorn squash ever did. When I pick one of those squash, the liquid that comes out of the stem area is sweet enough to put on pancakes. It's so sticky I have to wash the pumpkin off and let it dry before I put it with its mates. 

I have one more close to ripening and then that will be that for this year. 
Do I plan to grow them again next year? 
Oh yes. Yes I do. 

I took my valiant effort of a bird on magnolia leaves out back to the little bit of woods beside the railroad track. I did not bury them. I laid the leaves, broken and breaking as they were, on the ground but I placed my first effort at a bird on a stalk of cut bamboo. 
I like it. Not the bird, specifically, but where it has come to perch. 

And so it goes. 

Love...Ms. Moon