Too much produce!

I’ve been busy as a bee in a bucket of tar. Not only do we have grapes and apples up to the eyeballs, I had all sorts of meetings last week. I swore off picking tomatoes two weeks ago, but somehow cannot bear to let the last ones rot on the vine. I have become my mother.

Yet in the face of so many things on the To Do List, my motivation is low. The days have been cold and gray with periods of rain. I am grumpy. Fall is my least favorite season as Mother Earth packs up for her winter nap. Every green thing is dying around me. The sun is out today, though, and I have (as I always do) high hopes of having a productive day.

Not everything about fall is bad. There is, for example, raspberry pie! We shared this one with Kate and Jane, who came up last week to meet Banjo and Bingo.

Whole raspberry pie

Sliced raspberry pie

Speaking of, the kittens are still cute, although growing quickly. They are comfortable enough in their new home to appropriate my chair for naps.

Nap time in my chair. Note Bingo's leg over Banjo's back

Last week, though, I was home so little that they started sleeping in Terry’s chair. That hurt my feelings a little.

Relocated to Terry's chair

One evening as Terry was getting ready for his shower, he dropped his work clothes on the floor. “You’ve got to see this,” he called to me in the kitchen. “They look like they’ve killed an antelope.”

Sure enough, there they were, like lions on the Serengeti, guarding their prey.

Cats guarding a fresh kill (Terry's work clothes)

Goldenrod and New England aster are the last gasps of summer blooms.

The last blooms of summer--New England Aster (left) and hard-leaved goldenrod (right)

As such, they are popular with the pollinators. Included in this picture are bumblebees, honeybees, and unidentified small flies. I waited all summer for this particular plant to bloom. It started out with spectacular large leaves. The stem grew and grew while the leaves decreased in size as the height increased. My hopes for large, showy blossoms were dashed when numerous small buds developed. At long last, about two weeks ago, the first blooms opened, and it was another one of myriad goldenrod species, hard-leaved goldenrod, Solidago rigida.

Pollinators on goldenrod

Like goldenrods, bumblebees come in lots of species. This one is twice the size of most bumblebees. I don’t know what kind it is. Bumblebee identification is above my pay grade.

Giant bumblebee

Normally the New England aster is a deep purple, and most of ours is. I noticed these lighter shades for the first time this year. There are three different colors here: deep pink in the upper left, lavender in the middle, and light pink on the right.

Color variation in New England aster

As we were eating supper last Friday, Terry spotted a deer among the river birch. At first he thought it was a buck because it looked so big. Binoculars settled the issue, as there were no antlers. The doe was already in her dark winter coat.

Doe in her winter coat

Soon her fawns showed up, walking along the orchard fence, gazing wistfully at the apples within. They need not worry. We have so many that they will be getting their share when Terry dumps them in the back. He gets them away from the apple trees to break the breeding cycles of the pests.

Fawns by the orchard fence

I took several pictures, trying to get all three in one frame. They finally posed for me. Like many family photos, however, one member of the group had her eyes closed.

Group shot, and Mom has her eyes closed

Now I must get back to the kitchen. The apples await!