Golden days

View across the autumn-colored vineyard toward our hamlet

Today — like most days, you might be thinking — it's mostly about pictures. We had a beautiful Sunday and even got a lot of work done. But the most remarkable thing about the day, along with the summery weather, was the display of colors in the vineyard.

On the morning walk, it was pretty dark. I had to
use the flash to take pictures like this one.

In the morning, I picked our last eggplants (about 8 of them, some pretty small) and bell peppers (about a dozen, again some pretty small). Then I pulled out the plants. Except for green beans, which are still producing, and the collard patch, which is just starting up, that's it for the 2008 vegetable garden. It was not a roaring success.

Walking down a row of vines Sunday afternoon

Because I was out of commission on Saturday (thanks to pollen allergies), our walk schedule got thrown off. I ended up doing the morning and the afternoon walks with Callie yesterday. That turned out to be OK with me, because the aforementioned autumn colors were so stunning.

Our house and yard: you can see the hedge Walt trimmed
Sunday (center left on photo) and the red maples out front.

In the afternoon, Walt finished trimming a good section of hedge. It was one that hadn't been done a year ago, so it was a little overgrown. I also finished a small section with my shears, and I raked up the leaves I had chopped off. Then I got out a big pair of limb loppers and started hacking away at our overgrown hazelnut bushes. There are 15 of them, and I only pruned back 2 or them. So there's a lot more work to be done there.

The Renaudière vineyards in October 2008

Soon we will be able to have our big fire outdoors and burn up some leaves, branches, and scrap wood. Then it will officially be fall — though, as you can see, nature didn't wait for us. It went ahead and changed seasons.

Sunset, 12 October 2008, at La Renaudière

Today is supposed to be another gorgeous day, with temperature about 75ºF. We have our work cut out for us, me with the rototiller and W. with his hedge clippers. That and a nice lunch will make for another good day at Saint-Aignan.