After dazzling us for weeks with brightly colored leaves and balmy breezes, October left us with a wet, cold kiss. We had dreary skies, drizzly rain, and chilly temperatures. We even had some snow on Friday, but just a little and it didn’t stick for long. I suppose it was October’s way of saying “Brace yourselves for what’s coming.” It’s hard to say what’s coming. One almanac says we’ll have a harsh winter, another says a mild winter. One weather agency says more snow than usual, another says less snow, more rain. The prognosticators are often wrong in their predictions for the weather just a day or two away, so I don’t put much faith in any of their long term forecasts, but I always root for the most temperate predictions. That’s all in regards to the physical atmosphere.
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Dreary weather.
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Snow on Friday.
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A bit of snow.
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It’s also hard to see what’s coming in the socio-political world. The atmosphere there has been unstable for a long time now. I’d like to think that this week’s election will settle things, but I don’t think it will. Last week as we were driving home from our weekend at the Thayn’s house, as we drove across Pennsylvania through forests and farmland, towns and villages, I was filled with a deep love for this country. We live in a great nation, the greatest republic the world has ever known. We are blest with freedoms that few in the history of the world have ever enjoyed. But I fear that many are becoming like the citizens of past civilizations and nations who once flourished and then fell into complacency, decadence, decline, and finally oblivion. I want to think that, for the most part, the citizens of this nation are good. That they value their freedom. That they understand and appreciate the sacrifices made to make and keep them free. But it’s looking more and more like many don’t understand, that they haven’t been taught or they’ve forgotten or rejected the fundamental and self-evident truths upon which our republic was founded. The events of the last few years and especially of this year have made me realize more and more that we have arrived “at that day when Satan shall rage in the hearts of the children of men, and stir them up to anger against that which is good.” The Scriptures warn us that “if the time comes that the voice of the people doth choose iniquity, then is the time that the judgments of God will come upon you; yea, then is the time he will visit you with great destruction even as he has hitherto visited this land.” This was Fast Sunday and our family dedicated our fast for our nation, praying that God will guide us and keep us free. We will vote on Tuesday and then wait to see what happens.
As winter approaches, I like to think I’m a bit prepared for it – physically anyway. I’ve battened down the garden and the barn. We’ve laid in some supplies. We have a pile of wood for the stove and more on the way soon. When I saw the snow coming down on Friday I thought, “Here we go.” It didn’t amount to anything, just a thin crust on the coldest spots that melted away the next day, but still. I’m trying to prepare mentally, too. Last week I mentioned my winter book list. Reading keeps me sane during the long, dark months. And with the outdoor garden tucked in, I’ve shifted my need to tend growing things indoors. I finally brought the last of the potted plants that I will overwinter – pelargoniums, osmanthus, ficus – from the back porch into the house. I will fuss over them all winter long and try to keep them alive until the warm days come again and I can put them outdoors once more. And I have all my other houseplants to tend, too.
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Pelargoniums in the upstairs bay window.
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To alleviate some of my pre-winter malaise, I took advantage of a fall seed sale and ordered some flower seeds for next year’s garden. I usually don’t order seeds until January or February, but I couldn’t resist. They arrived in the mail on Thursday. It made me so happy to open that package and see those packets of seeds. It gives me much to look forward to as I plan and dream of my garden in June when those seeds will be blossoming in their glory. Of course I will still order more seeds at my usual time next year.
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Seeds for next year.
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Speaking of floral glory, some of my Schlumbergeras are blooming. I call them by their botanical name because their common name, Christmas Cactus, doesn’t really apply to them anymore. They used to bloom at Christmastime, but for years now they’ve been blooming earlier and earlier in the year. They went from Christmas to Thanksgiving and this year they started blooming before Halloween. I love their bright flowers. If I’m lucky, they’ll bloom again at the first of the year.
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My schlumbergeras in bloom now.
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Tuesday was Orchid Workshop Day for me. Over the years I’ve collected six phalaenopsis and four oncidium orchids. They delight and fascinate me. Unfortunately, they became infested with mealybugs. I don’t know where they came from, but they infected every one of my orchids and caused a lot of damage to them. I tried several things to get rid of them – different insecticidal sprays, frequent washing of their leaves, changing their growing medium, but nothing worked. The mealy bugs always came back. On Tuesday I made my last attempt at eradicating them. I removed each orchid from its pot, shook all the potting medium from their roots, and washed the mealybugs off of every leaf, nook, and cranny of the plants. Then I immersed the plants in buckets full of warm water with neem oil and tea tree soap. I scoured all their pots and wiped down the shelf where they sit with bleach. Then I repotted them in brand new medium. I also inspected and washed all the other houseplants in that room. So far I haven’t seen a mealybug, so I’m hopeful. If they do come back again, I think I’ll have to give up and dispose of my orchids. If that happens, I know I’ll just start collecting them again. I’ve long had a case of orchid fever and can’t imagine not having them around me. If I had a heated greenhouse and a fortune, I’d have thousands of them.
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My orchids after cleaning.
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On Tuesday Yoder’s Seamless Gutters showed up and put the rain gutter and down spout on the new porch roof. That means phase one of the porch replacement is finished. The next phase is putting in the floor, railing, and steps and we don’t know when that will happen. In the meantime, we are only using the back door for all our ingress and egress. [Two words with an interesting etymology – they come from the Latin gradi “to step” + in, which means “in”, or ex, which means “out”.]
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New gutter on the new porch roof.
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A few weeks ago when there were grandchildren visiting here and over at the Shillig’s, Stacey and Miriam hosted a Unicorn Hunt for the children. As part of that, they tied strips of “unicorn hair,” which are iridescent ribbons, to a bush in the orchard. After the hunt, they left the ribbons there and a few days later I noticed them sparkling in the sunshine. I liked how they looked and, thinking they might act as a deer deterrent, I tied more in the branches of my apple trees. It turns out the deer are not put off by them, in fact they seem to like them. But I love how the ribbons move and sparkle in the wind, so I’ve left them up for now. So when you see photos of my orchard, that’s what all the sparkling ribbons in the trees are.
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Unicorn hair in the orchard (you have to look closely).
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As a parting gift to me, October, on its final day, sent me a flock of evening grosbeaks to spend the morning at my feeders. There had been reports of them in the area. Miriam saw some in our yard earlier in the week, but I did not see them until yesterday. They are beautiful birds. They are not common visitors at my feeders. They are rather shy. I spent a delightful half hour watching them from the kitchen window.
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Evening grosbeaks at my feeders.
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Evening grosbeak at my feeder.
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Yesterday was Halloween, not a holiday we do much with at our house. While many people now fill their yards with inflatable ghouls, festoon their houses with skeletons, cobwebs and giant spiders, and turn their yards into zombie filled graveyards, we set some jack o’lanterns on the back porch steps. That’s all. Our house is remote enough that we never get trick-or-treaters and that’s fine with us. Even when our children were small, we didn’t go out on Halloween. We spent the evening watching a “scary” movie. And that’s what we did last night.
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Full moon on Halloween.
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We turned the clocks back last night which means my body is off kilter today. For a week or more I will continue to wake up at the same time I always do, no matter what the clock says, which means I’ll be up at 4:30. I’ll miss Daylight Saving Time. Now it will get dark earlier and earlier. It seems I just have time to get the chores done after school and then it’s dark.
It is chilly and rainy today, typical bleak November weather. I wore my winter coat to church for the first time today. Church, I’m sorry to say, was a bit tedious for me. I was hungry and my stomach was growling the whole time. The meeting seemed too long. Now I’m ready for lunch and a long, long nap. Maybe that will perk me up a little. Then away we go into November, the penultimate month of a year I’ll be glad to see gone.
