The always-tedious and ongoing fall necessity of wintering our property is in full swing. I've yet to empty all the garden pots and urns of their soil, enriching as I do so the gardens with these fresh offerings. I'll get around to it, and then my husband will set about gathering them and storing them under the deck, covered with a tarpaulin, to over-winter them safely. Some of the clay pots are particularly susceptible to freeze-and-thaw breakage, and this preserves them.

This morning my husband has been busy disassembling the canopy over the deck. While in the summer months it prevents excessive sunlight from dazzling us in the breakfast room and provides a certain amount of privacy, as well as shelter when we sit out on the deck, and it doesn't matter whether it's raining, we're kept dry thanks to its presence, in the winter the climate that we live in would soon destroy it. Taking it down every fall preserves it for ongoing use, as well.

I'll collect the last of the parsley this morning, nightly frosts aren't far from our doorsteps now, although the last few days have been balmier and today we're enjoying full sunlight.

Now that my husband has completed installing the wildlife feeders, the first thing we do in the morning and before we go upstairs to bed at night is peek out at them to see who's around. It seems to us that their memory has served them well; we think we recognize last year's birds with some of their offspring, and the same for the squirrels.

Two nights ago we watched two juvenile raccoons making themselves supremely comfortable under the roof of the squirrel feeder, delicately picking away at the offerings, a delight to watch.