Good Thursday, Everyone.  Cool again but not as cool as yesterday and sunny again.  I got five trays of lemon balm and two of pineapple sage dried.  That is the last of the lemon balm for the season.  I pulled the plants and cleared that planter.  They were nearly root bound.  The cuttings I took a while back have rooted nicely and I will put them in one of the medium large pots for over winter and next summer.  I hope to cut and dry some more basil and other mints today.  I won't bother taking any other plants out until the frost kills them.  My mums should burst into blossom any day now.  Next year they will also go into their own medium large pot.  We still have the hummingbird feeder out but haven't seen the bird for almost two weeks--since the last really nasty line of thunderstorms went through--and the number of bees visiting have also fallen off.  You can definitely tell the season is changing.  Many of the trees are well on in their change of color, quite early.  And the color isn't very vibrant.  The season was too hot and too dry.

Another sign the season is changing--we think more about soups, casseroles, chili, and beans.  Those are our cold weather standbys.  Yesterday Mom made up our first pot of chicken/noodle soup.  Yes, we make it up from scratch.  We got a cut up stewing hen a couple of months ago and that was our base.  Now we have a pot of soup in the fridge, and three pints of stock and three small packages of cooked chicken in the freezer for future meals.

Welcome back, Nicola.  It sounds like you will have some new beauties to show us next spring when the bulbs your husband is planting bloom. Mom and I are doing fairly well.  I hope for more normal temperatures and rainfall next year.  This year the heat just sapped my energy.  I didn't keep the gardens as well as I usually do and didn't take many pictures.

We saw a version of this story on the NHK news last night.  I have read about the efforts of chain retailers to break into the Indian market before and have always rooted for India's small retailers efforts to keep out the global chain stores.  I resent the notion that somehow allowing these behemoths to loot the local economy (wherever) is 'reform.'  Studies have shown that five years after a Wal-Mart goes into an area there are fewer jobs available, higher unemployment, lower taxes collected--none of which indicates a real economic boom.  Too bad that the ruling party in India has been seduced by the pie-in-the-sky promises of the mega-retailers.  Hopefully, popular protests will scotch the plans.

I love this story!!!  No comment needed.