Still Feeling Summer Like

*For the record, if you find any typos or grammar errors in my posts, I apologize but I am not using AI.

I feel like I have not updated this in a while, but with the semester starting and everything going on, it is hard to find the time. I titled this post "Still Feeling Summer Like" because it has been hot like in the upper 80s, low 90s Fahrenheit and dry. However, as you can see in the first picture on the left, I have gotten some fall mums and planted them in front of the mailbox with some coneflowers in the back. I am hoping that I dug deep enough that these don't die because everything I have planted in this place before has died. They did not come back even though they were perennials, mainly because they weren't planted deep enough I think. I am having to water them a lot though because they get direct sun in the afternoons and it has been so dry that if I can get them to survive this year, hopefully we will be okay.

The center picture is of one of the native plants that I planted along the fence in the backyard last year that has flowered this year. I believe it is a false sunflower and it has been showy. I have some other native plants just starting to get ready to bloom. One of them is the giant New England Aster that is taller than me. When it blooms in its entire glory, I will be sure to take a picture and post it.

The last picture on the right, is of a small frog under the grass in the left center of the picture that was taken on the side of my house that gets the most shade and also stays the most wet for some reason. I admit that I do not mow my grass as nearly as much as some people probably like and let my yard go in the sense that I don't put anything down to keep grass green or weed free because frankly grass does nothing, so why should I pay for the upkeep? Instead my yard is a mini-ecosystem of native plants and flowers (what many would call weeds), frequented by birds, small frogs or toads, pollinators, rabbits, and other animals that I am sure I don't see. This is how we fight climate change, not by paying a couple hundred dollars twice a year for a company to come spray my yard with chemicals that cause cancer that keeps grass green.

I have also gotten into canning this year for some reason. As you know, I have made two batches of blueberry jam already and gave probably most of it away to others. I am about to make another batch tomorrow. Another colleague of mine had apples and has given me some and this past week, I made crock-pot apple butter and then canned it. I am not a canning expert because I am still learning because so far everytime I only have some of the jars actually seal properly and hear the popping sound of the lid going down after I take them out of the water bath. The other ones automatically go straight to the fridge after they have cooled down enough. The apples were very sweet, so I only added a bit of brown sugar and then spices. We all liked it and then I gave the one jar that sealed properly out of three to my colleague who had given me the apples. Here is hoping that the four or five jars of blueberry jam all seal tomorrow. I am not sure where this is coming from all of a sudden like the feeling that I need to stock up for winter or something because some jars of blueberry jam or apple butter aren't going to save us in some type of doomsday scenario, but it still feels good to do and enjoy and know that other people are enjoying it too.

Some of this might be because of the novel I wrote this summer and also after finishing writing I quickly read through The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I hate to say it, but one might think that I read The Grapes of Wrath and it inspired me or something for the novel I wrote this summer, but truth be told that I hadn't read it all when I was writing. Now I have moved on to John Steinbeck's last novel that he published when he was alive The Winter of Our Discontent and I am getting near the halfway point. So different from The Grapes of Wrath, but at the the same time so easy to understand and relate to. And on top of that the used hardcover book that I have is a first edition except it doesn't have its original jacket. I don't think it is worth anything but I enjoy the idea that I am reading it from a first edition publication of it and hardcover.

Yena, my daughter, has started to run cross country again and today she completed in her first meet as a high schooler. She got 12th in the JV race and the first for her high school team in the JV race. She didn't feel like she did so well, but after not being able to run for a while and not sure if she was going to be able to run this season, we are happy. We aren't sure or if it is possible for her to make varsity this year and either way that is okay because she can only improve and get faster from here!

I think I wanted to write a lot more but will have to end it here. As I have time, I will try to keep it more regularly updated.

Take care of yourself and always take care of those whom you love!