Workaday Saturday

It's Saturday but it's like almost any other day for us. The only difference is that the market is set up in Saint-Aignan on Saturday mornings. But I don't think I'll go there today. I need to go to SuperU instead, because the things we need come from the supermarket.

View out the kitchen window late one recent afternoon

And the hedge trimming has begun. I haven't taken any pictures yet. Yesterday, Walt trimmed the outside of the hedge along the street from the southeast corner of the yard, out front, all the way to the back gate. That's got to be about 75 yards of hedge. The neighbors will probably be happy to see him working on it.

Big parts of the vineyard are turning a bright yellow now.

Walt uses an electric clipper. Yesterday, I got out a pair of old hedge shears, the scissor kind, that we keep out in the garden shed, and I hacked at the inside of the hedge right behind the shed for a few minutes.

And then there's a little piece of hedge inside the yard that kind of hides the compost pile, and it was overgrown. I hacked at it too. It looks pretty good. I'll take some pictures today, as Walt started to work on the top of the hedge. I'm surprised I'm not sore this morning after all that unaccustomed physical labor.

View from the living room windows yesterday afternoon...

Yesterday I also picked a ton of green beans. Well, a kilogram, say. We had them for lunch, with zucchini fritters using frozen, grated zucchini from this year's harvest. I cooked the beans with chopped onion, salt pork lardons, and sautéed mushrooms. Walt made the fritters with flour, egg, grated cheese, and chopped parsley.

As you've been seeing from my pictures these last few days, the weather is gorgeous right now. The mornings are chilly and sometimes foggy, but by mid-morning — noon at the latest — the sun comes out and warms everything up. I guess this is a kind of Indian Summer. The afternoons are long, bright, and warm.

...and from the front terrace yesterday, looking toward the
neighbors' yard. The maple trees out front are turning
a bright orangy-red and will soon drop tons of leaves.

Tomorrow afternoon we plan to pick the remaining eggplants and green peppers out in the garden. Then we will be able to clean off that plot, run the tiller through it, and use it as a place to burn autumn leaves and scrap wood. We have a pile of scrap wood that we pulled out from behind the garden shed, after talking about cleaning up back there for 5 years. It'll make for a good bonfire some dampish October or November day.