Okay, now we know it's autumn

It's 7:15 a.m. and it's dark! It's like the middle of the night. Callie is hot to trot, but I'm not taking her out in the dark. She'll just have to wait.

We finally took down the radiator in the kitchen so we can paint it white and the wall behind it yellow. We had the plumber over for a couple of little repairs and he loosened the fittings for us. Walt and I didn't have any trouble lifting it off the wall brackets and laying it down on the floor yesterday. It's not as heavy as I thought it would be.

Painting rooms is made much more complicated
by the presence of radiators.

Yesterday I also started cleaning up the garden. It's that time already. I pulled out all the tomato plants. They weren't going to produce any more, and the tomatoes that were out there were no good (with one or two exceptions).

One plot tilled, three to go...

I also pulled out the summer squash plants. We got plenty of green and yellow squash this year — the freezer is full. I tilled the plot where the squash plants were and now might plant something else in it.

One day earlier this week we heard unusual sounds out north of the house. It was machinery of some kind, but it didn't sound like a grape harvester — too many sawing, mowing, and crunching noises. We went out to look.

The swath they cut

It was an Electricité de France crew with a big chopper/
shredder. They were running it under the power lines just outside our yard, back at the far corner. That was the place where I had made some progress chopping back the enormous blackberry bramble on the neighboring property. Guess what! The blackberries are totally gone now, along with a lot of trees.

Raisins in the sun

Grapes are being harvested. A couple of times a day we see the blue tractor go by, pulling the blue trailer loaded down with grapes. They seem to be picking white grapes for now. The purple ones are still all hanging on the vines, looking as beautiful as ever.

25 September 2008 at La Renaudière near Saint-Aignan

And the leaves are changing color now. Not just grape leaves, but also the leaves on the tilleul or linden tree out back. And others. Autumn. Bientôt, il va falloir ramasser les feuilles mortes à la pelle...