Feels Like Fall

This morning when I retrieved my Toronto Star paper I felt a hint of coolness in the air. Yesterday I dug my ten hills of potatoes and picked the apples off the young tree as the birds were interested in taking bites from them. It seemed early but it was time. We have already made our spaghetti sauce for the next year and although we do not get as ambitious as we used to we have effectively completed these little tasks before September.

This makes it possible to enjoy the beautiful fall weather and get some serious biking and outdoor activities going. We prefer this season for golf as well because when school begins the courses are not crowded and the price drops a little.Ontario has such a variety of deciduous hardwoods that the colours make our countryside some of the most beautiful found anywhere.

I prefer to prepare my garden beds early in the fall and do a double tilling to rid them of weeds. This year I was bothered for the second year with peach curl. This deadly disease ruined the nectarine crop and I cannot get rid of it. I followed the instructions but with no avail. Because of the dryness of July and August all the fruit seem smaller and I would not consider this a good year overall. My water bill reflected my need to keep everything damp but tap water is not rain and I feel the chemicals in the tap water a hindrance to growth.

One thing that comes to mind when mother nature warns us of cooler weather is the call to the south. We begin to think about and plan for our migration to Florida.This is just a reminder now but on each cooler day we start to talk about our place there and wonder how everything is after six months of neglect. One more little distraction is that hurricane season is with us and we keep our fingers crossed to ward off any real bad storms.