Magic Hour

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Around the Farmhouse

• Compost surprises
  • Such cute little pumpkins and squash!
• Blackberries
  • Time to trim back the runners
• Completed summer projects
  • A fence! 
  • A front door with charming pane windows is installed!
  • Thank you, Boss!
• Projects to carry into fall
  • Finish painting the living room & loft
  • Paint the new front door
  • Plan how to use the fence line for next year's garden produce....
  • Dig in compost in the flower beds
• Homemade lemonade
  • Delicious recipe
  • Fridge disaster - a sticky spill which appears to be more lemonade than I made..... and I don't understand the physics of how it can be everywhere! Really, everywhere.
• Date night - the Cameo Theater opens!
  

Quote of the Week

“If a year was tucked inside of a clock, then autumn would be the magic hour."

Victoria Erickson  

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Magic hour -- special moments at dawn and dusk where the sun is low, near the horizon creating a golden glow. Filmmakers, photographers and poets love it -- the softer light is perfect for film and sonnets! 

Autumn is my magic hour -- a golden passage between summer and winter. It is quieter than the shift from winter to summer -- spring can be a bit showy. Filled with my favorite colors, the slow changes from the bright, clear summer sun to the pale, gentle autumn radiance warms my soul like no other season.  I love autumn.

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Dear Farmhouse Diary,

August was a busy month and it is good to settle into September routines.

• The Boss has returned to the University from his sabbatical -- the transition back has been challenging with the pandemic and all. It would be pleasant to nurture community with the students by inviting them to our home for dinner and conversations, but we are not yet sure how to do this within the current social distancing guidelines.
• The changes to the Stories Matter blog have been helpful in setting up my own routine -- retirement is good as long as there is a purpose. I will go bonkers without goals and activities... I think this says something about me.
• Supporting and encouraging my daughters is falling into a nice weekly schedule of time together, texts and Skype phone calls.

Harvesting from the garden is a hit or miss proposition --

• We have a jungle of volunteer tomato plants which are gorgeous, but I am still waiting for those little green tomatoes to ripen up! Maybe the upcoming week of 90° temperatures will help.
• Our dozen onions are perfectly sized and a deep red-purple.
• The winter beets are on their way and may make it without a cold frame covering, but we'll need to do something to cover the purposefully planted squash and pumpkins. The volunteer pumpkins and squash are going to be just fine -- the heat from the compost will keep them on track to harvest. 
  
• And I'm not even sure my tall, wavy potato plants are producing anything beyond marble-sized potatoes.
• The Boss's lemon tree is just now shooting out flowers -- unless we have a month-long period of higher temperatures any little lemons which develop are not going to ripen.
• The FoodCycler was delivered - between traditional composting, bokashi and the Food Cycler we should have NO food waste at our house.  Stay tuned, Diary.

Date night!!  Sabbatical/retirement has been non-stop date nights even if they are at home! But returning to routines and the opening of the Cameo Theater means we can see a movie on a big screen!!  Woot! Woot!