Finally Fall

The weather shifted rather dramatically this week and last night left a fine mist on my windshield and persistent cloud cover over head. I even asked M to turn off the fan last night, and still snuggled up in the blankets. The liquid ambers that line my drive to work are touched with burgandy and gold and giant thunderheads loom over the deserts, dwarfing the local mountains.

It's Fall. About damned time.

M and I started moving bricks out of the Stone Circle and marshalling them into neat stacks along the North fence. My hope is that we'll clear them out, remove the metal ring, and more or less level the topsoil out in time to prune back the fruit trees and scratch away the ivy this year. Our poor Nectarine is besieged from above by an over-zealous squash climbing over the fence and assualted from below by the ivy creeping under. The Apricot's lower limbs have spread so wide that we can't slip past it to get in under the Nectarine (which likewise needs pruning up off the ground). The Wisteria along the North fence have gotten leggy and grabby, like climbing plants do. The lawn finally reached a lovely shade of tawny dead, but the nighttime moisture has spotted it with puddle of green again.

I feel like baking again, and told M I might make muffins this weekend--something I haven't done since Spring. There is so much to do, and I often fall prey to slotting more than we can manage into a given weekend, but I feel a drive and interest in working on projects again. That energy is easily re-directed into nothingness, so I have tbe vigilant and use the momentum when I have it.

It's been a sad and very stressful week. I am hoping to focus on other things this weekend and try to find my own sense of happiness and fulfillment away from work. I need to stretch my wings, on a budget, and without whacking anyone in the face with them. ~_^