A dose of Autumn sketch....

Last weekend both D and I had our cars broken into at the new house. In the driveway. Within two days of one another. That stinks. As if the walnuts clattering down on the roof weren't enough to make a person a little jumpy, now we find that our driveway is no deterrant to a persistant member of Portland's thriving car break-in community. Loovely.

Luckily, for each of us, nothing was stolen except for a certain sense of safety and privacy. It would have felt different if the cars had been on the street. It would have been very different if it had not been at our home. We're both still feeling pretty positive about things, all told. Not planning on moving out and abandoning this goofy "project" of ours. But we're also not keeping a gram of anything valuable out in our cars. Forget it. I won't even keep a burned CD out there.

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In other news, though, fall has definately descended. The air is cool and crisp, and the tomato plants we inherited are thriving. Cherry tomatoes for the masses, hurrah! Well, or just for us. I think we've had exactly three off the plant so far.

D is talking about picking up a compost bucket this weekend, and I've made a giant mound of sticks pruned off the rose bushes. They don't exactly compost well. It's just a stick-y, sticker-y pile at the moment. Please don't jump for glee in that pile. You will be poked.

We are also talking about our options for a fall vegetable garden. With the new brouhaha over bagged spinich, I think this is one of the number one plants on our list of "to-grow's." We are planning shallow raised beds for lettuce, spinich, broccoli, radishes, and other fun green things. My sources tell me that we should be able to raise these for a couple months yet if I can get the beds underway soon!

Also on the list of to do's...

... big planters with herbs. I'm thinking rosemary, basil, and whatever else I can get my hands on. Portland has a pretty mild climate, so we should have some luck.

... MUMS! I want some gorgeous fall color in pots, too. I need to pinch back my pansies and my geranium (they are still looking gorgeous and flower-full), but there's nothing quite like a MUM for good early October color (and it's almost early October).

... BLINDS! Supposedly they come in this next week. I can hardly, hardly wait. I won't even know what to do when the whole outside world can't watch TV with me at night. Maybe I'll just be lonely without the company?

I will try to update early next week with more news from the yard. We'll see how much we get done. D and I both have busy weekends planned.