Autumn's Urges

Fall, or autumn as it is always called here it seems, is definitely here. 

Many of the trees have lost or are losing their leaves.  Unfortunately, although the nights are cooler, they do not get cold enough to cause the leaves to produce all the beautiful color we are used to in the eastern U.S.  Here they just dry out, get brown, and drop to the ground.

I have also found myself feeling like making soups and casseroles.  That desire for warming and comforting foods definitely means the days are getting shorter and cooler.

So far, giving in to these urges, I have made bagels and French Onion Soup and a low carb shortbread for dessert;  a nice rustic loaf of bread (I got up early so it would be fresh out of the oven for breakfast which should give me extra points); chicken divan; and cooked garbanzo beans and soy beans for use throughout the next week.  I have mental plan to make  minestrone soup and a loaf of bread and brownies, both using cooked beans as part of the ingredients.

I have also broken out my yarn and crochet hooks and started on a few simple projects I planned during the warmer summer months. I have been snagging up the yarn at charity shops all summer so that I can crochet all winter.  Idle hands being the devil's workshop.

Mike has also been picking what appear to be almost the last of this year's blackberries.  They appear to be ready to stop producing quite a bit earlier this year than last when we were still picking them in late October.  I wonder what that portends for the coming winter?  Probably not the mild winter of last year.

We have yet to have a fire daily, let alone all day.  But, we have a nice supply of mini logs and a bag of coal on the roof so we are prepared for when that time comes.  However, we probably should stock up on some more coal fairly soon.

So, I am off to enjoy the warmth and sunshine and light of autumn while I still can.  Talk to you later.