Ahhhhh.....

Busy but relaxing weekend. Can those two things go together when describing your weekend? Well, that was mine. Let's see if I can sum it up in three photos.

All Hallow's Eve

Indian Summer


Preparing for winter

I love it when my weekends seem to go on and on and on. This was one of them. Usually, a busy weekend equals a "gone in the blink of an eye" weekend but such was not the case this time, thankfully. I'm assuming adding that extra hour in there with the end of daylight savings time had something to do with it. But, long gone are the days when that means an extra hour of sleep. I don't know about anyone else, but my kids just wake up an hour earlier. No extra sleep in this house.

Yesterday was such a beautiful day. I don't think that one day in the mid seventies counts as an Indian Summer so you can call it what you will. I will call it Heaven. We spent the entire day outside and tackled several projects. One project on the list was my vegetable garden that Gene finished for me this week. The garden looks great. Unfortuantely, the soil is another story and first on our to do list for the weekend. Gene's parents live on a property with a barn and a lot of acreage. They lease out the land to a local farmer and several years ago had also leased out the barn. Therefore, there is a lot of high grade "fertilizer" remaining in the barn from its previous tenants. So, we spent the morning loading up the "fertilizer" or as my kids call it, "gnore". Luckily, I had the job of keeping track of the kids running around the barn and yard while Gene took care of the "gnore".

While chasing after the kids, I must have said at least three times (all while deeply inhaling the warm morning air), "what a beautiful day". The fall colors, warm sun, and fresh air was so rejuvenating. I really, really dislike winter. So, to have a day like Saturday, was as I said, Heaven. After leaving Gene's parents, we hit the local garden center for pete moss and walked out with a blue spruce, two holly bushes and a blueberry muffin viburnum for $31. I love it when you stumble upon the 75% off, end of season sales. Only downside is this added to the to do list for the weekend because all of these purchases had to be planted.

Saturday night we roasted hotdogs and made smores over a fire in the backyard. It was the perfect way to end a great day. I used to love those kind of days... when the only time you stepped foot in your house was to use the bathroom. Saturday was one of those days. We walked outside at 9:30 am and didn't walk back in until 8:30 pm.

Needless to say, you can understand my disappointment when I opened the door this morning to let the dog out and was hit in the face with what was COLD air. Huh?? I had the windows wide open all day yesterday. I was going to repeat today. My weekend worth of warmth. Where did it go? Maybe it was showing up late today? Was confused by the loss of daylight savings time? I waited and waited, but it never showed. I even dressed a little too lightly for my run today thinking that I could somehow convince myself that it was warmer than it was. Fact? I froze my arse off and it wasn't just chilly, it was downright cold! I passed several runners who had winter hats on, in addition to warm clothes. Guess they're past the denial phase. I'm still waiting.

However, despite the cold, we finished all of our projects. The garden soil is tilled and looks awesome, our new trees and shrubs are planted, the ridiculous amount of bird seed my husband bought has been mixed and put into the feeders, the jack-o-lanterns have been tossed, the groceries for week have been bought, and I think I'm now ready to call it a night.