I LOVE AUTUMN!

Autumn Delight

QUOTE:

 If winter is slumber and spring is birth, and summer is life, then autumn rounds out to be reflection. It's a time of year when the leaves are down and the harvest is in and the perennials are gone. Mother Earth just closed up the drapes on another year and it's time to reflect on what's come before.

Mitchell Burgess, Northern Exposure, Thanksgiving, 1992

Main Street Arrowtown

I love Autumn! The cool clear air, the warm, but not too hot sun and the wonderful kaleidoscope of leaf colours is  a wonder to behold. The nights start drawing in and many of our birds are busy looking for nice sheltered spots. I don't miss the intense heat of summer or the humid nights that sometime make sleeping very difficult. The noisy crickets and mosquitoes are still annoying any bare skin, but our recent rain will probably fill all the cracks in the soil and reduce the cricket population. At least the hot summer drought has meant few paper wasps to be seen and that has been a small bonus. The beach crowds are starting to disappear  and we don't have to queue for milk at the supermarket or struggle to find parking in our village. I notice that on the weekends the traffic heading back to the city has a lot of caravans and boats being towed back home, so we will hopefully start returning to normality.

A peaceful lake

And what about that beautiful clear sky! We have been told many times that New Zealand enjoys some of the least polluted air in the world and Autumn is certainly proof that on a clear day, you can just see forever! There are numerous parts of America famous for their Autumn tree colours, but our own South Island has a number of Districts with wonderful golden leaf displays, such as Arrowtown and Te Anau. Unfortunately Lyn and I can't make the trip south this year, so I will just have to check out our local scenic deciduous offerings!

A country Road

Another aberration this year has been the poor quality and the small quantity of our potatoes, squash and pumpkins. We normally have loads of produce to store away in our old packhouse which is warm and dry, but this season a lot of this crop have either been very small or have developed mould on the skins already. I guess we will have start a new patch next year and let this area recover it's strength. The heifers were left to graze this plot and they have left a decent quantitiy of manure and this should help the recovery .. Saves buying fertiliser too! It is pleasing to see the persimmons ripening (must bird proof) the yellow and red tamarillos are colouring up and there are still a few raspberries to pick. The granny smith apple tree has shed an overlod of fruit, which has delighted the black birds and I have picked and stored the remaining pears and  our remaining red apple crop.

Of course Autumn is also the time when the weather can change overnight and what was a lovely sunny day on Monday can be a windy, wet day on Tuesday (like this week) This in itself can have benefits, today the regional fire ban was lifted and because of the steady rain, we are not encouraged to devote the whole day to outside pursuits and can catch up with a bit of home cooking (pie making) and planning the Winter garden layout. It is also a period of organising our home and business computers and making sure that updates are loaded and files are archived. It never ceases to amaze me how many files can accumulate in a season and unless you have plenty of spare time or are naturally a tidy person, it means a determined effort to get back to a manageable state.

Some years ago I joined an online website "Get Organised.com" and it has been a family joke that I have something like 1000 unread emails from this group! Get organised indeed!

Till next time.

(Click on Graphics to enlarge)