October Moments

This week has been short, with Monday the Thanksgiving holiday, but busy with covering classes for another teacher. 

Rain fell this week, and temperatures are dropping. Late in the afternoon, however, golden light suffuses the garden as the sun slants low over the Sooke Hills beyond our home. 

Rich tawny shades dominate in one last burst of colour before the austere lines of bare branches are etched against the sky.

Something drew me to an upstairs window on Wednesday afternoon. A thin layer of mist covered the distant hills seen beyond our neighbours' roofs. A tree, aspen perhaps, glowed yellow. 

   

An enormous murder of crows rose up and swirled silently in circular patterns that spread from garden to garden including our own. The black crows spiraling upwards in the mist and the beacon of the yellow tree formed an unforgettable picture not captured by any camera.
At a time when the world aches with pain and despair, this moment of grace came as a gift from God, and I tucked it into my heart for safekeeping. 

The weekend is upon us. Some homekeeping is on the agenda, and a little cooking. Hopefully a long walk and reading by the fire. What are your plans? 

The good, more good and the ugly

Lots of goodness in the garden these days. The blueberries are winding down, but there are still enough to pick a batch every few days for topping breakfast granola. 

Last night we drove to Chemainus for dinner followed by musical theatre. Les Misérables. It was so very, very good. Such a wonderful story of the power of grace and love. "To love another person is to see the face of God." I'm still thinking about the story and the soaring voices. 
 

White phlox is blooming, standing tall and fragrant against the cedar hedge. White and green loveliness. A couple of weeks ago I lost my watch (my regular one) while gardening. I dug through the compost bin, through the recycle bin (where the weeds go) and looked in the garden beds. No luck. 

Today I noticed something shiny in the grass in front of the compost bin. I was watering at the time and turned the hose on the shiny, thinking it might be a slug. Nope. It was my watch, still keeping perfect time. Can't think how it survived a lawn mowing, two days of rain, and perhaps being stepped on. Remember the old Timex watch commercials where the watch was subjected to all kinds of rough treatment? This could be a real advertisement, except it's not a Timex.
 

I spent a couple of hours in the garden this morning, too, weeding, pruning, admiring. The tomatoes are looking good - still a few more weeks until we eat one, although there is a stem of cherry tomatoes reddening nicely. Every year the tomato plants reach out to one another until I can't tell where one plant begins and the other ends. I read recently that tomatoes like to be crowded, so I'm off the hook. I'll let them sprawl all over each other, in spite of trying to control them with tomato cages.
 

These hydrangeas are the very opposite of ugly. But I can't show you a picture of the ugly because I don't have one. You wouldn't want to see it anyway. Our city is a seaport. Seaport equals rat population. They've been awful this year. In the past two weeks we've trapped and killed 4 of them. Ugh. And we think that someone in the neighbourhood is poisoning them because there's a terrible smell coming from the woodpile, which means that a rat has probably crawled in there to die. Ugh, ugh, ugh. 

I never told you about our Christmas Day Rat Massacre, either. Usually the rats stay down by the compost bins. On Christmas Day I noticed a rat on the deck/patio. Tim set the trap (peanut butter does the trick) and one took the bait within 20 minutes. He reset the trap. Three more times within the space of 2 hours. Four rats. Ugh, ugh, ugh. 
 

I can't leave you with the ugly, so here's a pretty surprise. Our clematis did poorly during the two years the house was rented. So I pulled it up and discarded it. The hydrangea bush is in front of where the clematis formerly grew. Today I noticed, among the hydrangea blossoms, some lovely big, purple clematis flowers. I'll try and detangle it from the hydrangea bush in the fall. 

What's good around your place?