Garden is still there, slowly but sure.

 It is settling into being Fall now. Nights are definitely colder, going to dip into the high 40's in the wee hours of the morning tomorrow and the south bed in the garden is getting no sun at all so none of the seeds have sprouted.

Did I mention I figured out the change in the formatting code for getting pictures parallel again? I just kept trying different combinations of positioning and found it. Yay! Stupid programmers. Oh and that's the same tree different times of the day and different angles. It is almost completely yellow now but in the second picture it's late afternoon so it's more pink/orange due to the sunlight. But you can see that the top of the tree is more yellow and moving to orange while the lower part still has some green. 

I found one leaf on the sidewalk that has the prettiest colors of yellow and red/pink. One of the only ones on the ground and from the trees but then the wind has been blowing a bit.

So I got the cultivator and dug around the soil in the bed just to keep it aerated, I did it again yesterday as well but used my hands.... very black and almost sticky soil which means it's all the broken down compost, I remember seeing similar soil in the bare root beds when they stirred them up after a year of sitting. So I used my hand to spread the perlite out of that corner and mix it in as best I could. I don't know what I'm going to do other than that potato and the cilantro in that bed. I could toss some lettuce seeds and maybe try the radishes again but there's only about two or three inches of soil when it compacts back down again.

Health scare is resolved, nothing major anymore,  other than my knee getting all tweaked which has taken a week and a half for it to recover. One of the reasons why I didn't go down to the garden as often is not wanting to use the stairs when I have to keep my right leg from bending. 

I didn't get any pictures but the cilantro and romaine are coming up in the west bed, I think I saw one lone onion maybe two coming up. Let me tell you, if Santa brings me soil for Christmas I will be so happy. A new hose would be nice as well but that's pushing it, I may get some extra money in December so hopefully I won't need it for actual necessities and manage to get things for my garden.

I really need it to succeed next year. For my own mental health mostly. The world is very depressing right now and I need to be reminded that there are good things I can do in my little corner of the world to make me happy.

A lot has happened and still not much

 The sun is shining, the tank is clean.... or something like that.

Santa Ana's came through yesterday and today so it's windy and clear, very nippy at night and my allergies have kicked in.

Hummingbird was hanging out at the feeder the other day and tried to get a good picture through the kitchen window. Less than professional results of course. And then this morning taking Rocky for his walk, a female was flitting around under the trees and around the pile of leaves and back around. Took me a moment to realize she was taking advantage of gnats and flies collecting in the shade. Made me smile a few moments at least.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Got new shoes that are slip on and brown leather, won't show the dirt as badly as the white pair at least. The leaf blower started up at 7:45 this morning and the piles have begun to collect on the grass. The piles would not be so big if not for the gusty winds yesterday and today. No need for the fans or AC at least.

I think I've figured out how to get parallel photos finally! YAY! Meanwhile, before, during and after my decision to yank the tomato bushes. I pulled the last two tomatoes off (and left them on the white rack oops) though they showed signs of spotting and not completely ripe. The smaller left side tomato plant had three small ones and frankly wasn't going to wait for those to ripen. I watered as much as I felt necessary, trying not to crush the single cilantro coming up near the potato. Nothing is coming up in the south bed by the way, it's shaded all the time so if I want something to grow there I'll have to put plants in.

Just some fall color, it doesn't show how much they are being whipped around by the wind though. Hoping to get the short video uploaded of that action. Wind just started up again and it's a wonderful feeling but at the same time it is a very dry wind. 

In other news, there was a canyon fire across the freeway and near the university. Not even remotely close to the boys school,but got some good views of the smoke cloud from the park. It could have been very bad if the wind had been as bad as it is today as there were homes all around the rim of the canyon it started in. They got it out in a matter of a few hours thankfully with the help of a water tank chopper going to the nearby lake. Caused a serious traffic snarl and my normal twenty minute drive from the school to their place was almost an hour.

Life goes on, garden will be what it is for a while. Financial situation is not going to improve on it's own so have to make do with what I've got.