Another beautiful morning!

That being said, my concerns at the moment are with Milton, the hurricane headed toward the west coast of Florida. More specifically, towards the Tampa Bay area, which is where my sister lives. I foolishly hoped I was overreacting, but Mere, who is a seasoned hurricane veteran, told me I wasn’t overreacting and that this is a serious threat. That area was impacted by Hurricane Helene. And now this – coming directly from the west. It’s supposed to hit land on Wednesday. Schools have been closed. I’m not sure if evacuations have been ordered yet. Mere lives a bit inland. She probably won’t get an evacuation order. She said that hotels are already full because of Helene.

I’m going to check in with her later today and also watch The Weather Channel. Though, every time I’ve tried to check in on Hurricane Helene or Milton, they’ve not been live. Instead, they air ‘specials’ that have nothing to do with what is happening now. Seriously, all weekend long and after 8 pm every evening. Hello? Weather doesn’t take the weekend off.

I don’t have anything much to share other than my worries about the hurricane. Life is sweet here at the cottage, but neither of us is working and there’s not a lot going on. Once again, I am wondering how much longer I will continue blogging. It’s been on my mind lately. But no decision has been made yet.

Something sweet:

The littles playing in the leaves.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.

It’s a very foggy fall morning! Just gorgeous. Don took a little walk in our woods and he said it was very atmospheric.

We watched the Mets last night and that had to be the most stunning turnaround in a 9th inning I’ve ever seen. We were screaming. Wow. Wow Wow. Big congratulations!

I’ve been feeling under the weather the past few days – sinuses – but today seems better. Hurrah! We’ll take a walk this morning and I’ll return some library books at the same time. Then, I’ll be catching up on some chores around the house; vacuuming, dusting, watering the houseplants, etc.

I saw another monarch yesterday – from the upstairs window in our bedroom. Soon it will be time for them to fly south. I officially vowed to always have zinnias around because they are the only viable flowers at this point in the year and the monarchs need that sustenance. I watched him flit from zinnia to zinnia. Of course, I’ll always have milkweed as well, even though they spring up in my big garden bed and crowd out the other flowers. This year, I thinned them a bit and that worked well. Believe me, we have plenty of milkweed even with the thinning.

I finished my puzzle yesterday. The World of The Great Gatsby.

It was a joy to work on, but those partiers were very, very tiny. This is definitely my favorite line of puzzles. The company only creates two new puzzles a year, so they’re a precious commodity.

I just looked out the window here in the den and my gosh, the fall colors are beautiful. Lots of gold maple leaves along with the beginnings of red oak leaves. I need to be present and take this in because it will all be gone in a few weeks.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday,

The vibrant yellow goldenrod around the property is keeping me going in the midst of all rest of the flowers and plants fading away. (Impossible to get a clear photo of it – sorry.) On one hand, I’m ready for autumn and the seasonal change. On the other, I’m mourning the last days of my gardens. This change is never easy for me and – I’ll be honest – it leaves me feeling melancholic.

Because it’s been so rainy, I haven’t been able to mow the largest part of the front lawn. I had to wait a day for it to dry out and I tackled it yesterday. The aim was to cut the grass, of course, but also to chop up/mulch all the leaves on the front lawn. The new lawn mower is too low to the ground, no matter how much we adjust the height. So I used the older mower without any front wheel – or is it rear wheel? – drive. I ended up doing the entire front lawn all the way up to the entrance of the secret garden. Needless to say, I’m feeling sore and congested this morning, though I’m pretty proud of myself for tackling it. There will be more leaves, of course, and I’ll have to do it all over again, but for the moment, it looks better out there.

I didn’t watch the debate last night, though I kept up with it via Threads. (Smarmy mansplaining liars aren’t my thing.) We watched the baseball game instead.

The Canada geese are flying overhead much more often these days. The sound of their honking is one of my favorite things. I often see them in the river when I drive to the library. I saw one catch a fish the other day. I haven’t seen the Great blue heron lately. Is he still there or has he moved on to another fishing spot? To be determined…

To those of you who love Louise Penny, her newest book, The Gray Wolf, will be published on October 29th. I will buy it – an exception to my No Buy rule. I have all of her books in hard cover and I want to continue that. I’m on the hold list at the library for Michael Connelly’s newest but it’s a long  list. So I also reserved it in the Large Print edition because that list is much shorter. Frankly, my eyes will probably thank me for it.

Okay. Have to make our second cup of coffee. I desperately need it this morning.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.