The Autumnal Equinox

I took this photo 14 years ago on  the beach at Rockaway Beach on the Oregon Coast. It was the Autumnal Equinox and the sun was setting on 

Summer between the Twin Rocks.

  

I have been there a few other times on this exact day, and have many photos of those rocks in various seasons, often with sunsets. I always think of those days at this special place on this last day of Summer, first day of Fall.

Fall actually begins here at 5:05 PM, so technically this is the last day of summer. Once again the sun will set on the change of seasons. Hopefully there will be another beautiful sunset for those who can see it. 

I am a summer person, though I do love the beauty of early fall too. I took some photos of the end of summer here in our garden and on the walk I just finished at the park. 

I wore my sun shirt, Zia Sun, that is. 

The leaves are just starting to turn at the park. Our maples here in the garden are still green.

There is color in the garden still.

And plenty of prickly texture in the Danger Garden. Soon these plants will be heading to the greenhouse to overwinter.

Clouds in the morning make way for more sun in the afternoon.

There is chill in the shade. 

Once again, autumn begins, summer ends.

Happy sunsets to you.

 

This Week

 I think I might have photos! We'll see. If I am getting photo access now, I won't wait to post. This is long. 

On Monday we did our usual laundry and house work, and then in the afternoon we met with our insurance and financial advisors. We had received the latest bill for our Long Term Care Insurance and it was significantly higher, with notice that it will be ever higher next year. We needed advice. 

Eventually we decided to stay the course. Having to save for your own elder care would cost even more per year and it's really too late the do that now in our 80's. 

On Tuesday we had our Zoom meet up, I went for a walk in the park, and got a haircut. And I picked flowers.

And our TV died. We had to look back in my blog archive to determine that it was 14 years old. The screen went black. Google research informed us that the back light was out. Since that was a very expensive repair we decided it was time for a new one. We spent Tuesday evening doing research. I identified the TV I wanted. We researched what stores might have it and for what price. 

Wednesday morning as we were getting ready to go shopping we heard the often broadcast ad from Video Only. They were not on our list, but the ad told us "you would be sorry" if you don't go there. So we did. 

They still had a few of the TVs I wanted, last year's model, and at a lower price. We bought it. Then we spent the rest of the day setting it up and trying to get it to work for us. New TVs are set up for streaming. We still have cable because we just want a remote to give us what we want, which is mostly network tv. 

I think is was by accident that we found a way to get our cable. We watched tv. 

Thursday morning I went shopping since Kohls was having a sale and since it had been a long time since I had shopped, I would lose my Kohls credit card if I didn't use it. Using your Kohls card is how you get the good deals.  I shopped for new bras. What an awful ordeal! Anyway when I finally got home Tom had worked on the tv set up some more and we have a good enough system that only takes one more remote than we were already using. 

I rode my stationary bike for exercise.

Friday was breakfast and grocery shopping day. Then Tom harvested his crop if Poblano peppers. I roasted them, we removed the skins, Tom chopped some for the freezer, and I made Chili relleno casserole for dinner. A lot of work, but really good.

On Saturday Jill and Jake went hiking in the mountains. They found a furry friend. 

Tom and I went to the Des Moines Marina farmers market. We bought berries for Jill and almond croissants for us. Then we got coffee at the Quarter Deck and sat and enjoyed the croissants, the coffee, the view, and the people. 

We did a little walking there, then delivered the berries to Jill's house before joining the protest rally back in Des Moines.

We took the summer off, but we decided it was time to express ourselves once again, and release some build up anger. There were about 30 of us and I talked to almost all of them. I had a good time laughing and talking with like minded people. 

The political scene is heating up. I'm working on staying chill. 

Oh, I'm wearing Sounders gear here. They played in the evening. Another tie.

Today I wore Seahawks gear. We walked in the morning. I watched the game in the afternoon. The Hawks won. 

All is good. 

Quiet Saturday, Then Sunday, Revised With Photos! On Monday

 It's a quiet Saturday afternoon here at the Reeder Homestead. We were quite surprised when we were first  awake enough this morning to notice the time and the clock said 9:00! I guess we needed it. I had several insomnia nights this week and Tom had oral surgery on Thursday.

The weather is quiet today. No wind, no rain, no heat, just sun and clouds and mild temps. Nice. Good enough that we got outside this morning for about an hour and a half to do some yard clean up. I worked on the upper bank clipping and trimming. 

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Well, now, it's Sunday. I had trouble with photos again. Blogger only lets me use Google Photos. My iPhone sends my photos to iCloud and now also Google Photos Gallery. Fine. But it takes most of a day before the photos show up on the Blogger insert app. And today my yesterday photos are not available for "insert" at all.

It rained. We got .65 inches overnight and Sunday morning. That's good. It's still quiet. We got a head start on Monday housework. 

Wet patio on Sunday

Where I worked on Saturday, getting rid of the spent perennials. 

Tom works in his green house. Yesterday he put wire hangers on nursery pots so he can hang then in the greenhouse, because his benches are filling up with geranium and other cuttings. He was just out taking more cuttings, this time of plectranthus. Of course there would be pics of all of this, but.... Oh, now I have photos!

On Wednesday Jill and Jake attended the Seahawks Season/NFL Season Opener in Seattle. We watched on TV. It wasn't looking very good until the last quarter, when the Hawks pulled a win out of the fire and defeated New England in a replay of last season's Super Bowl. Go Hawks!

Also watching on her TV was our 99 year old friend DeDe. She had a scare recently, was in the hospital for a day, and is now home in her senior living complex, but is still recovering. We had lunch with her on Thursday. I am not ready to live in one of those places yet. I think it's the cafeteria food more than anything that gets to me. I've gotta keep moving.

I have a pretty arrangement of dahlias to show you, but sorry. (Now I can!) Our dahlias are looking raggedy from lack of staking, but I am still getting some flowers from our sun starved raised beds. Today's rain will refresh everything and then we will be back to some sun and 70's. Summer isn't over yet. :-)

The Annual Phosie-Gertie Picnic and Family Reunion

 We're up to 54 years and counting. The young adults then are now the elderly elders. Yes, me too. Our babies then are now adults with grown children leaving empty nests. But we still gather each year at the family compound on Whidbey Island, on the Sunday of Labor Day weekend, in a celebration of family named after two sisters who are grandmothers to multiple generations of direct descendants. 

Irene and Tom raised the PG flag and we sang our anthem. 

We took our family photo.

We honored the Direct Descendent Elders. Introduced youngest to oldest, they are now arranged left to right, oldest to youngest. Jan lets it be known that she is the younger twin, which makes Tom the most elderly elder. 

Then Jan shared some Phosie-Gertie history. 

Our long list of games from the early PG's has been reduced to just the balloon toss, leaving more time for visiting and eating. It could also be that currently we have no little kids. We did toss those balloons. It was somewhat eventful.

Since I have to use my stick to hold myself up, I don't toss any more so Jill appointed me the game director. All was well until an errant balloon appeared to be aiming for my head. I hurriedly stepped back, which I really can't do. There was a pause in the action while I picked myself up off the ground, with the aid of my grandson Isaac. I have no idea where the balloon landed, but my landing was slow and soft enough. No damage. The game was concluded with a "toss off" .

Scott and Irene were victorious. 

And then the activities were concluded, serious visiting began, followed by lots of eating and lots more visiting. 

It was another wonderful Phosie-Gertie. 

September

 Turning the calendar to September is not my favorite thing to do. As a former elementary school teacher it always meant the end of summer freedom and back to work full time. But as a long retired person I honor the calendar declaration that summer ends, and autumn begins, on September 22. 

The sunflowers in the garden are tall and stretching for the sun, which we have had plenty of, but our tall trees shade the patch too much of the day. Now the days are cooler and cloudier, with possible rain. We need rain.

School is starting and daughter Jill is back at work. Irene is settling into her new apartment in Bellingham, anticipating her senior year at Western and enjoying her full calendar summer. 

Yesterday, September 1st, marked the end of an era here at the Reeder Homestead. Tom decided it was time to end his 40 + years of Bonsai creating and maintaining. Over the years he has created about 25 little tortured trees. Some were just experiments and not long lasting. Some expired after ten or more years. He sold a few. The ones in the header photo are the survivors. Now they need more maintenance than he can give them, what with all of the other work that needs doing around here. Yesterday we took them to Bonsai Northwest to be sold either outright or on consignment. Now they are in someone else's hands. Part of downsizing. 

In the garden fall blooming hardy cyclamen are popping up everywhere, either planted by Tom or squirrels or sprung out on their own. It's fun to find them here and there.

We have "harvested" hydrangeas to be dried for winter flower arrangements. They are hardening off in the garage, stems in shallow water. 

Some that are picked too early may shrivel. We'll see. There are more in the garden but I wanted to get them before rain spoils them. 

While leaves haven't started turning yet on the trees, the dry summer is causing browning up on maple trees. But there is plenty of orange in the raised beds. While lack of sun makes it hard to get many blooms, French marigolds and orange cosmos are exuberant!

Spring, summer, fall, winter, enjoy every day. I'm trying to.