Attention: We interrupt the profusion and plethora of fall decorating posts to say, “Flowers are still blooming in Claudia’s garden.” Yes, there are wet leaves on the ground and the leaves on the trees are changing to gold and red. Yes, the weekends up here in apple country are full of weekenders picking apples and buying cider and pumpkins. Yes, we’ve got a lot of raking to do. A lot.

But, we’ve managed to avoid turning up the thermostat. We’ve managed to avoid raking. There is not one pumpkin or gourd anywhere on the property. I looked at some in the grocery store yesterday and had no trouble resisting them. So for now, I’m going to focus on the never-ending beauty of the garden, which is still performing, still enthralling.

It may be October 7th here in the Hudson Valley, but flowers are still blooming. There will be plenty of time for fall, believe me. I’m not going there; at least for a few more days – a week if I can stretch it.

In other news, I finally managed to copy and paste the one hundred 90th Birthday wishes you so generously left for my dad. Obviously, I wanted to do it on my dad’s birthday, but I came home from Hartford on that day, Scout was ill and you know the rest. So I sent them to dad in 3 separate emails, along with the post itself. He said he had tears in his eyes as he read them and he wanted me to give you all this message:

To all the readers of Claudia’s blog: Thank you for all the Happy Birthday wishes. God bless you. (And I’m not as good a person as you think I am.) From Gordon Hill.

And I thank you as well. They really made my dad’s day and he felt the warmth of your greetings as he read each and every one of them. You are all such wonderful, generous friends. Thank you.

And in other-other news, my favorite poet, Mary Oliver, has a new book of poetry out. It’s called Dog Songs and it’s all about the many dogs that have been a part of her life. If you want to know more, this article was in the New York Times this morning. I love Mary Oliver. I will be putting this book on my wish list.

Scout improves each day. Yesterday, for the first time, she loped back down the hill after doing her business in the dog corral. And she pounced!

Happy Monday.