Hurricane Season

The past few weeks the weather has remained fairly gross--high humidity, highs in the mid to upper 80s.  The redeeming factor was that the nights were finally dropping into the upper 60s and low 70s, so the mornings were tolerable.  Sort of.  I did have a week there of being able to have the windows open most of the day, but then we had a stretch of days that felt more like mid-August than mid-September.  

Thursday, a storm blew through that was the tip of whatever hurricane is moving up the coast currently, and the heat and humidity finally broke.  Yesterday and today have been downright chilly and I love it!  My windows are open, I'm borderline cold without tights, and finally feeling like I can think straight again.

My garden has been producing steadily this month, but I think with the cooler weather it will slow down now, and I need to start thinking about winterizing the containers.  I transferred the hydrangea into one of the five gallon buckets that previously held my potato plants before they died in the heat.  

I put the rose bush into the other bucket and clipped it to train the sprawl to fit into the space between the two containers.  I also moved the wild flowers into a larger pot and combined them.  They seem to have weathered the transplant okay.

Finally picked this puppy today since the leaf above is well and withered.  Hopefully it is orange and ripe inside!

There are still watermelons on the vine (it suddenly started producing again after I put some fertilizer in the ground last month) but I think only one will make it to maturity.  It's like the little watermelon that could!  I saved seeds from some of the earlier fruits to maybe try planting next spring.  

There are three still ripening here.  There was a fourth but I accidently pruned it when thinning things last week.  It was small and unlikely to reach maturity, so no harm done.

I clearly did something wrong with my original blueberry bush last fall, so I'm hoping I can figure out what to do differently to make it fruit again next spring.  

As the weather stayed stubbornly humid, I did some last ditch sewing for the season this week and made up three quick linen tops.  All use my nearly-self-drafted woven t-shirt pattern, and it is just the thing to wear in hot temps.  It is cool, non-binding around the arms, and I generally like the look of it.

Mostly, though, the last few weeks have been all about jewelry making.  I've got some new pieces that I really love, and am still poking away at the beads, experimenting with this or that.  It is creatively satisfying.  The pieces in the collage above are sets that coordinate but aren't matchy-matchy.  I don't know if it is the (negative) influence of the 80s/90s or what, but I prefer to make sets that don't quite match, but go well together.  (Speaking of the 90s, I'm having a Moment.  I bought a midi-length black leather skirt and Doc Marten combat boots off ebay recently and have been listening to music from jr. high and high school.  Looking forward to going all stompy and grunge when the weather really cools).

I'm not quite ready to contemplate my cold weather projects yet, so jewelry making is a nice transitional craft.  (Although I have been knitting all summer, just not with any kind of determination...a bit here and there while traveling or sitting in waiting rooms, or whatever).  

This morning we went apple picking for the first time in the area (I haven't been since I was a kid and a parishioner invited our family to pick on their home orchard).  We probably picked way too many, but considering that we can go through more than 10 pounds of apples in a week's time during the fall and winter, it should last us a little while anyway!  

I'm making a St. Pharnourios apple crisp since I owe him several breads, and cannot at this moment contemplate making a dense recipe.  We put a cross of chocolate chips on the top and I said a few prayers for his mother, so good enough, I say.  I think he'll understand.