The back yard on November 1

Yesterday afternoon I did something I hadn't done in a while. I took my camera on my walk with Natasha. The dog is much less wild and less likely to run away in the afternoon than in the morning. I'm not sure I know exactly why.

We started in the back yard, of course. Then we went out to the edge of the vineyard. There was a pretty sunset — photos to come. The grapevine leaves are colorful now too.

Above shows you what the vegetable garden plot looks like in November. We haven't yet raked up the big pile of maple leaves we have out on the front driveway. We'll spread those leaves over the garden plot this month, to keep the weeds down over the winter.

The big news in France this morning is that we haven't had any vraies grosses pluies — big rainstorms or long rainy spells — since last February or March. October was very dry. You can see how dry-looking our back yard is. Most years at this time it's much greener.

As you see, we haven't yet taken the garden hoses in for the winter. In other words, with leaves to rake up and hoses to bring in, not to mention potted plants that have spent the warm season outdoors, we have our work cut out for us.