Good Sunday morning to everyone and I hope you are all having a nice Labor Day Holiday. We experienced our lowest overnight temp since early May last night. I noticed a couple of days ago that some of the trees are showing the first faintest sign of their fall colors. The seasons are definitely changing but we are ready for the change. We don't really care much for winter but at least we don't have to go out in bad weather in any season. There is nothing so pressing that we have to risk life and limb (or even mild discomfort) by venturing out. That is one thing we definitely do not miss about having a job we have to go to come hell or high water, as they used to say. Soon we will have to close up the windows, reset the storm windows, and put the plastic up. Soon we will be wearing our flannel nightgowns and pajamas and our heavier robes. Soon I will shift from short sleeved t-shirts to long sleeved turtle necks and then into sweats. The normal progression of the year.

I hear you, Kay, about the energy. I have noticed that I don't have nearly as much as I did ten or twenty years ago. But then most of what I do doesn't require that much. I don't think I have spent more that, on average, three hours any one day working my garden containers. Much of the work is done in spurts and none of it is so pressing that it as to be done now. I generally spend a few minutes each morning looking at what is coming up. I took out the Mother's Day tomato yesterday but I could have waited till today (or I could have done it the day before yesterday). I dried about half of the herbs I picked yesterday but the dehydrator did most of the work. All I did was arrange the leaves and sprigs and turn the machine on. Today I will bag up the herbs, label the bags and put them in the refrigerator. Next year I may do a bit more work because I think I should cultivate the beds more often. I don't have a lot of weeds anyway and cultivating for that reason isn't a high priority. But I think the plants would benefit from being in looser soil and cultivation will accomplish that. The key to anything is to find the most efficient way to do what you want to do. A second key is to find out what you really want to do and then do it. Right now, my situation allows me to concentrate on three things I really like to do: gardening, reading, and needlework. When the garden demands attention I shift my energy that way because the books and needlework will always be there to be picked up later (or when the necessary chores in the garden are done.) When the garden is done or dormant I can shift my energy to the other areas. I find that with the garden winding down I have done more needlework. Over the last month I finished crocheting two large market bags and a dozen wash cloths to use up some cotton yarn I have had for years as well as taking apart a half-finished bedspread that I knew I would never finish and using part of it for two sofa pillows that also used up some material I had accumulated. I have some new projects in mind for the winter and a couple I want to finish. We'll see how they go.