deepening autumn

Having just a touch of rain this morning on the way to a warmup. Nice to have a little time to work indoors.
Been trying to soak up as much of this movement of Mother Nature's seasonal symphony as possible:
mulching the rose bed and grape arbor,

freezing, canning, baking, eating out of hand, and giving away as many apples as possible (each chicken gets an average of an apple per day from the many windfalls). Though the Cortland has less apples than some seasons, the apples this year are the most beautiful and some quite large.

discovering blossoms among the reblooming irises my Arkansas sister sent me two years ago which are settled into the driveway bed happy enough to rebloom this year for the first time (not what you'd expect in an October garden!)

repotting and reclaiming the outdoor vacationing houseplants, evicting any insects they might be harboring before bringing them inside, planning their indoor spaces carefully,

spending time with the new flock in preparation for blending the seniors and juniors (yesterday we had our neighbor assist in the removal of the spurs on our old rooster ) Been allowing them a bit of time with the connecting gate open each day supervising the interactions. You can see Cinnabon is growing up to be a mighty fine rooster and though an adolescent, already seems to know his responsibilities…

sitting on an upturned bucket spending time with the newbies, keeping an eye on the seniors. Punkin, our tiniest new hen, loves to hop onto my knee and talk with me a bit each day. Yesterday Cinnabon circled us slowly, once, twice, very close, his eyes on us, his head tilted, wondering just what I had planned for his little hen, but not objecting to our relationship. No spurs showing on him so far.

17 1/2 weeks old and getting ready for the first eggs, we've uncovered the nest boxes in the chicken house. There was some confusion early on as to where the newbies wanted to roost at night, so we covered the boxes and removed the temptation of sleeping in the boxes or on the perches in front of them. Chickens are creatures of habit but also curious and copy cats.
Harvested the last of the tomatoes and made the last batch of sauce. Planted a bit more spinach and lettuce to get us through the fall. Collecting spring bulbs for planting in the days ahead.
Just love this time of year.