We evaded frost last night, but it's anyone's guess how long it will be before the annuals are well and truly 'frosted'. From how the weather has been turning out this early fall, it seems clear at this point that we can expect to have to begin clearing away the annuals and cutting back the perennials earlier than usual. 

 

We can hardly believe that this is the penultimate day of September. Where has the month gone? True, we managed to pack quite a bit of activity into September, but it seems to have whizzed by. For that matter, so did summer in its entirety.

 

 

Looking about us at the remnants of the summer garden, I recall how excited we were at the first sign of spring bulbs pushing their young green presence through the warming soil of early spring. And we talked about how avidly we looked out for the first return of foliage in the forest canopy as early spring gave way to mid-spring and a light haze of green appeared everywhere we looked. 

 

Now that summer is well and truly gone for 2022, our evening menu has transitioned back to comfort food. Meals not quite as casual in content and preparation as those we accustomed ourselves to over the summer months. Last night we enjoyed a fresh vegetable salad as a prelude to fish and chips. Salmon fillets and oven-'fried' chips, reverting to the kind of meal reserved for Thursdays in this household. As a further concession to the need for more 'comfort-type' food, we had a pear compote for dessert.

 

As I cut up the pears in preparation for production of the compote, Jackie and Jillie kept nudging me to remind me they were there in the kitchen with me, and they love pears, too. So they had chopped-up fresh pears, despite their twice-daily vegetable salads. No such luck for them today, since earlier in the morning I baked a strawberry pie, and that's not fare for little dogs.

 

We went out earlier than usual to the ravine this afternoon, finding the warmth and glare of the sun irresistible, despite the cool temperature. Here and there, we see bright red patches of maples and glowing yellows and oranges of birch and poplar, with the sumacs coming up close behind in autumn colour. The most common wildflower still in bloom are the asters and the pilotweed. We did come across the maturing feral tomatillo we had identified in early summer, growing alongside a minor trail next to the creek.

 

The weather was simply glorious, inviting us to remain out longer and take our time threading our way through various interconnected trails on a perfectly lovely day. It seems we've stumbled into a series of such days, to compensate for the dark, dreary rainy days without end we went through in mid- to late-September. Tomorrow is on track to be even more beautiful, given the advance weather forecast.