Now it’s in the 40s and headed down to the 20s!  A good day to spend mostly indoors doing erev preps.

It’s my turn to do the challah and dinner, which will be roasted chicken, baby butternut squash and sweet potatoes, a garnish of cranberries, pecans, and walnuts, and broccoli with fresh assorted peppers from the garden.

It’s that photo challenge time of year, also flower-challenged, but we thrive on challenges.  Also, note to self: plant more marigolds!  That last plant photo is the eucalyptus tree!  Will it survive the winter?  Will I??  Stay tuned…

Ways to tell it’s really fall:

• I started obsessing over upcycling candles.
• Thoughts of hibernating have to be disregarded.
• That vague seasonal indisposed feeling sets in.
• It’s a windy 50º, coldish, and darkish.
• I start persuading myself my work out there is done.
• Need to propagate!

I did actually do a thing outside: I cut some dead native seed stems from in front of the veg garden and placed them along the fence behind the trampoline.  I’m hoping some lobelia, etc, will grow there.  Then I ran out of energy.

Another perfect day in the 70s means I was out working and loving it.

I sowed some partridge pea seeds Stacey gave me, up front in the new bed, to stratify.

Then (don’t tell N) I went ahead and mowed the whole front, because it may be the last time, and I wanted to mow carefully around my new improvements.  (Also because it’s the front, and we rent.)  I left the back yard alone.

In going through old photos to delete, I noticed the contrast between when I first saw this property four years ago, and now.  Back then it was like a neat, flowery blank slate.  There was a lot more lawn!  But also apparently more native and other flowers.

Now it’s gotten a little wild looking, with more areas planted, or needing attention, and less lawn.  Conclusion: it needs way more flowers and interest all year, and more groundskeeping management by me.  That’s my goal for next year, starting now.

Some election results are still being counted and too close to call!  But the more votes that come in, the better the dem candidates look.  Of course the irrational nutcase in power reversed his intention to concede the election, and started up his usual raving about fraud and revenge.

What an incredible moment in our history; somehow democracy still works enough to come through.  No, it’s still by no means perfect, but there’s hope waking up in the morning, that the people can prevail.

OK, back to gardening, but not a whole lot, with all the other things to get done.  I raked the compost area leaves into the leaf pile, and I raked the woods path again.

I did come up with more improvement ideas, but they’re still in my head for now.  One is: turn the two large raised beds, which up until now have been mostly a failure, into flower beds!  First they’ll need lots of rest and rehab.

See, I can balance politics and gardening!  Both involve learning from mistakes and aiming those lessons at the longterm solution.

It was a perfect sunny 70º in November, t-shirt weather, and I got a lot done.

I ordered four kinds of natural mulch for specific projects.  First I mulched the front garden extension.  Then I cleared around each of the lilacs, and mulched them.  I also mulched around the lambs ears at the corner of the walk.  With what was left of two bags, I mulched the eucalyptus tree and the strawberry plant(s).

I dragged what was left of the gourd monster onto to the 3 sisters mound.  Now it looks much better by the strawberry area.

I’m trying to counterbalance keeping things wild and native, while going for a mini-MOBOT aesthetic.  I shall make it so.

To recap…erev went well, then Stacey got to be initiated into The City Museum experience, while I went home.

Last night I “slept” over, i.e. didn’t sleep much.  The kids were all out at the annual Friendship Dance, at Kirkwood.

This morning, coffee fix in hand, I zombified into the garden and got one of my projects done.  I made another stab at enlarging the front entrance garden.  I used multi-layers of cardboard and paper bags, watered it in, then covered it with leaves.  It looks pretty nice this time.

Then, drumroll, behold!  An ephemeral penis fungus was in erection mode in the strawberry patch!  So climactic!  And I got photos to prove it!  I even dragged Avdi over to witness it, before it went limp!  (I just call it penis fungus for obvious reasons; it’s really appropriately named Phallus rubicundus, or red stinkhorn, both good descriptions!)  I was so excited!  Garden porn!

Then I came home to collapse from all the excitement, or lack of sleep.

You and I are not escaping back to homey garden reveries that easily!  The election gave us a shot of hope and a shot at restoring some justice and rule of law, and that energy is not going away soon.  I’m staying alive for this shift of power from trump to the people, and even if my only contribution is writing about it and being part of a community that fights injustice, I’ll start with that.

Behind the scenes, I continue to do my tiny part to restore our small island of rental property to eco-balance and health, not to mention aesthetic tranquillity for the mind.  I hope the therapy of it ripples out to others to enjoy and escape to.  It’s an inexact science, because nature always takes the lead when you allow it to.  That’s the beauty and mystery of it all.  So I’m also staying alive to see the garden’s latest incarnation in spring.  A lot has gone into it.

When you’re younger, you get caught up in the art of survival, especially in these latter days.  Sometimes the turmoil doesn’t allow you to sit back and dream of better days, let alone breathe.  Time gets swallowed up in hustling to work, pay bills, feed mouths, and occasionally grasping a few moments of release.  Before you know it, you’re me!

Looking back, and speaking for myself, I see a long series of foolish, purposeless choices and chaos, amounting to not much accomplishment, with some bright exceptions.  It can take a lifetime to recognize your misguided priorities, and correct them.  I’m very belatedly in that process now!

It can also take a community to guide you back to right values and behavior.  Most of the credit goes to my son, extended family, and friends.  They helped me get back on track.  Now I have things to live for, and much to be thankful for.  Every minute I stay alive is a bonus.  I’m living for the day when all of us have a shot at life beyond just surviving, because our leaders lead by service and example.

So don’t look back, except to learn from our mistakes.  Don’t stop looking forward to hope of living in a more balanced, interdependent world, not just barely existing under fascist racist warlords.  And grab ahold of your life now and make it count,  whatever that means for you.

Even if it’s just gardening for the future, serving in ordinary ways, and rambling on about power to the people!  (Because I’m basically a nervous coward about expanding out of my comfort zone!  This too shall pass.)

Lo and behold, garden photos as predicted!  And they’re beautiful, if I do say so myself.  So much happy.

It’s supposed to go down in the 20s tonight!  I covered the most vulnerable seedlings with sheets, leaves, and plastic prop tray covers.

You can see I made up for lost time with my great new camera.

Guess what new device I have!  (HINT:)

The place is The Cheshire Inn Fox and Hounds English pub, where we drank good Scotch to celebrate the blue wave, sat by the fire, and met a new friend, Beth.  The atmosphere was very warm and cozy; you just wanted to stay a while and converse.

We also have the first photo of our new tree at night, a redbud.  More on her later.

Also of course the famous old huge Amoco sign.

As predicted, more garden scenes to come.

I think I’m exhausted from all the celebratory emotions (plus dazed from all the traz to make me sleep).  I still can’t believe it happened, but glad I lived to see at least a blue wave (or bluenami, as they say).

Looking more closely at polling percents, and Black women leaders’ reporting, it’s clear that this was mainly accomplished by large numbers of Black, Hispanic, POC, and queer turnout.  They’ve been fed up a lot longer than whites, and understand that this crisis requires solid organization and activism by communities and leadership to fix what’s broken.

OTOH, white Bible-belters across the MW, disillusioned by their cult leader, chose not to show up at the polls, so hell yeah!

You knew (well at least Jess predicted) that eventually I would get back to garden news, so here’s the latest: today we have a new tree in front!  It’s the free native tree from Webster Groves, a redbud.  And it wasn’t a tiny sapling, as I had pictured; it was an actual tree!

Fortunately, I hadn’t gotten too far digging the hole when the city person showed up to do all the work!  (I missed that memo.)  I dedicated the tree (with beer) and named her “Amani”, a traditional poetic Palestinian name representing a family’s hope for the future, like tree branches reaching out.  It seemed appropriate.

When I get my new phone (imminent) I’ll post photos!  That doesn’t mean I’m getting off my political soapbox just yet.  Just keeping the balance.  After all, metaphors!!

Last night we postponed our Avdi and Mom date, because he was feeling really unwell.  We may try again this evening.  If my new phone arrives by then, need I say more?  So many celebratory things to drink to and record!

Somehow I managed to get this one screenshot over to photos, so belatedly…