The pond outside our back gate is town property. We get to enjoy it and the birds it attracts, and the frogs and toads that spawn and live in it, but we don't have to maintain it. The town does that, and the mayor (who lives in a house in our hamlet) sent out a crew recently.
With big machinery they scraped out the pond, digging out an invasive aquatic weed that was taking over, and scraping the sides of the pond clean. I hope there are some fish and frogs left in there, because they feed on mosquito larvae. Here's what the pond looked like last summer.
That's our falling-down back gate — have to get around to doing something about it soon — and the top of our garden shed in the photo above, as well as the big conifers and other trees in our yard reflected in the pond's still waters.
Below are some morning scenes from my walks with the dog out in the vineyard this past week. The weather is turning cold now. Low temperatures are predicted to fall into the low 30s ºF this coming week, with afternoon highs in the high 50s and low 60s.
The fireplace chimney was swept on Thursday, and we've already had a couple of fires in the woodstove since then. The house warms up fairly fast because it's not all that cold outside yet. Tomorrow, a technician from the company that services our boiler will come to get it going for the winter, so our radiators will be hot by Tuesday morning.
We're starting to bring potted plants inside. I have a table under a Velux skylight window up in the loft set in place to accommodate two or three big house plants, which have spent the summer outdoors. Others will go into the little sun porch at our front door. I remember fondly not needing to bring plants indoors when we lived in San Francisco, because we almost never had freezing temperatures there. Here's where we've been living for the past 12 years. San Francisco it ain't. But it certainly has it charms.
I'll get back to the figues confites tomorrow, after they've had their final cooking later today. See yesterday's post for details...
Was it water hyacinth that invaded the pool? Let's hope it won't come back.
ReplyDeleteIt was jussie. It probably will come back.
DeleteHere in Texas we're still running the AC most of the day (sigh). At least the nights are
ReplyDeletecool enough so that we can sleep with an open window. A crackling woodstove sounds
pretty good from here.
Here we go again with bringing in the plants. I'll be doing it soon, but am enjoying these last days before the freeze.
ReplyDeleteThe countryside where you live is beautiful. There seem to be no housing developments being thrown up everywhere you look! You know how the farmland here is being turned into one development after another. It's really sad. Your property is gorgeous and it looks so peaceful and quite there. How nice to have a pond to enjoy without having to do any work to maintain it. Can't get any better than that! I hate to see summer go, but I am tired of the heat and humidity. I'm looking forward to a little sweater weather, though I won't be putting the shorts away until January. You can never tell here what the weather will be like here anymore!
ReplyDeletepond is nice but toads and frogs I hate them
ReplyDeleteI can understand (but don't share) the aversion to toads, but frogs? They are beautiful animals.
DeleteWe're having early autumn weather, mixed with a day here and there that is still warm. Colors on the leaves on the trees suddenly, and beautiful leaves on the ground. We've had a couple of fires in our new woodburner already, but it has certainly not been needed everyday.
ReplyDelete