Weather & Mood

Fire in the Morning Sky

These very early morning photos were taken by me a little over a week ago. I couldn't sleep so I got up before dawn. Rising early is a rare occurance for me since I usually don't sleep very well these days. That morning we had some clouds in the sky and the sunrise was so beautiful that I ran to get my camera. My front porch faces east, so these were all taken standing on the porch looking eastward toward the nearby mountain ridges.

I love the beauty in all of these photos, but I really adore that bright fiery look of the first one above.

This next one was taken a few minutes later when the dawn light was more mellow and pale:


Yellow Dawn



Then the lovely pink hues of the next photo made me say "ahh" as I took the shot.

Pink Sunrise



I wondered to myself as I enjoyed nature's beautiful sunrise display, why I don't make the effort to get up earlier and enjoy this peaceful time of day more often.

Since these photos were taken, we have had a couple of rainstorms pass through our mountain area here, dumping loads of heavy wet rain on us pretty early in the season. We went from very dry cooling weather, to very wet chilling weather very quickly. Everyone and everything here is trying hard to adjust to the rapid change.


It gets chilly in my house mid-afternoon now. I started building fires in my woodstove about a week ago. That stove really warms my home with steady even heat that penetrates the whole house. The ground outside is more than damp. It is muddy! Everywhere is drenched. Wet leaves on the ground. Mud and debris stick to my shoes causing me to brush them off before entering the house.


The weather has been kind of grey lately with the abrupt change, and so has my mood. I have been grumpier than I'd like to be more often than I'd like. I guess my body is trying to adjust to the weather changes and so is my mind. I am disgruntled over my pretty red petunias that were so nice a couple of weeks ago. They have died with the cold weather. They made it all the way through last winter and choose now to die, before we even had snow yet. I miss their colorful red faces that greeted me every time I went out on my front porch.


My garden is going dormant. I've been pulling out the dead veggies. All the tomatoes, squash and even the spring broccoli plants are gone to the compost pile now. I still have some carrots and even a couple of bell pepper plants still out there freezing their leaves off. Probably should bring them in now.


I did harvest my late planted canteloupes. See the baby-sized melons in the picture below:



Baby Canteloupes ~ baseball size and smaller


Next year I will start them earlier and feed them some nutritious compost to grow them bigger and faster. The one I cut (see photo) was very tasty. I enjoyed the orange fruit and the chickens enjoyed pecking at the green part on the peels.


As I mentioned in my last post, well over a week ago, I did clean and roast the Halloween field pumpkin seeds.



Clean Raw Pumpkin Seeds

Pumpkin Seeds ready to Roast

I salted and seasoned them with some spicy stuff and gave them to Jack and Bob to enjoy.

This afternoon Bob brought me a bouquet of roses to brighten my spirits. So not all is grey around here. Some things are still bright and red:

Beautiful Red Roses

I am lucky to have good friends, partners and my loving pet companions in my life. I really never lose sight of that even when I am grumpy. I guess I just need to make my own sunshine when it's raining and cold outside.

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