Would You Believe...

...that a week ago it was 33.2 deg C!? Since it's going to feel fall-like and maybe even downright chilly over the next few days, let's relive that glorious (smokey) warmth from a week ago in pictures, shall we?

Yola: Last Day as ConeDog the Squirrel Chaser

Beauty in Plant Death

On Monday, the last day of summer, we had our coldest night of the season, where we measured a low of 0.1 deg C at the house. Today, we had our warmest day of the summer (measured at 32.8 deg C at the house), yet it was actually the second day of fall. The way that summer failed to make a punctual arrival has made this lingering warmth in September that much more sweet, but it will soon end. And so will the verdant life of our garden plot. Previous to the chill, a combination of decreasing light, mildew, other fungi and insects had already begun to sap the vibrancy of the foliage, and now it has accelerated. This light frost seemed to affect mostly the squash and pole bean leaves. The combination of these factors has created its' own strange beauty in the withering leaves, if you look closely enough.

The Secret Life of Squash

When we orginally decided to grow pattypan squash in our community garden plot, we thought, because the fruits are a diminutive size in grocery stores, the plant itself would not consume much space either. Wrong. The plants become similar in size and shape to their more robust cousins, the ubiquitous zucchini, and have taken up almost half of our 8' X 12' plot. And prolific - great gourds, are they prolific! They're the bunnies of the squash world, and if you blink, they'll grow to the size of a mother ship, vs the usually thought of smart-car-version-of-a-flying saucer. The flesh is similar to a zucchini, and is quite good marinated and grilled, stuffed, sauteed or in a stir fry, etc. However, on day 7, after you've shovelled down your third helping of pattypan surprise casserole, you're willing to bolt outside and deposit 10 lb sacks of the the scalloped urchins on the porches of every neighbour on the block.

That being said however, despite the multitude of flowers and little buds (see photo taken today below), and a promise of more warm weather remaining, the gourd hordes are now expanding at more of a snail's pace.

2 months - Or Longer??....

Well, due to a combination of: glitches determining the cause of a PC malfunction (snuffed operating system (os)); vacationing in Saskatchewan, then BC; trying to reload said 'os' to some semblance of what was before, with much frustration; being overwhelmed by the 32 odd GB of photos with no home but their flash cards; and yes, just plain laziness, I have not posted in well nigh these past two months, or is it millenia?

As I look at my dog Yola, fitted funnel-like with her "Elizabethan Collar", she makes me think of a cross between the RCA Victor dog and Laika, the Russian canineonaut of some 52 yrs ago. How did this come to pass? About 1 month ago, we felt a small, suspicious lump just above her groin on her right side. A visit to the vet seemed to indicate from aspirated fluid that the mass was benign. Tammy and I headed on our trip to BC, and the proposed minor surgery postponed to our return. Yesterday was the day of the procedure, and she certainly read something into my body language, because despite normally being reluctant about going to the vet, yesterday she was downright obstinate, and refused to get out of the truck. I prevailed in the end, and Yola had her surgery, which went well (the mass ended up being a foreign body, perhaps a quill segment or wood, walled off by a cyst). The worst was yet to come, though, with the ignominy of her having to wear this, this ... thing.

She's got another 10 days to go with this, but I'm sure she'll survive. She's certainly milking the sympathy for all it's worth in the meantime. I shouldn't poke too much fun, but there's an odd mix of sympathy and an urge to chuckle as she clonks around with this thing like Maxwell Smart with the cone of silence around his neck. Anyway, here's her scar, wanna see?:

I promise: the next few posts will be more photos, less verbose.