NOVEMBER, ALREADY

It's hard to believe it is already November. This year seems to have flown by, but then every year seems to go by faster and faster. Halloween is over and now we've already begun with Christmas advertisements on the television. They don't even wait until after Thanksgiving anymore. I wonder how soon they will start with the Christmas music on the radio? I mean, don't get me wrong, I like Christmas music. But I'm not sure I could stand almost 2 whole months of it!

Our yard flag for this month

I know you may find it hard to believe, but I do think Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. Even though there aren't any presents involved, there is the next best thing...food! And lots of it. It's the one day we are allowed to overindulge ourselves and not feel guilty. Linda and I usually drive over the pass to spend Thanksgiving on the Seattle side of the state, but this year we are staying home and hoping that some of the family may be able to come over here to join us. It's still too early to say for sure, but we can always hope.

SIGNS OF WINTER

There are signs of winter everywhere you look. We were threatened with snow one night last week, but it didn't happen, thank goodness. We did, however, have an overnight temperature of 11 degrees, so I'd say that qualifies for winter. Yesterday as I was walking into the grocery store I saw bags of ice melt and tube sand just outside the entrance. For those of you back East who may not know, tube sand is a tubular shaped bag full of sand. The purpose of these bags is to put them in the trunk of your car or bed of your truck to add weight and help with traction in the snow. Each bag weighs about 60 pounds. It is a struggle each year for Linda and me to get these things into the back of the truck, but it is necessary to have extra weight back there. I am not looking forward to loading them in.

Heavy stuff

More signs of winter can be found around the yard. I wasn't sure what I was going to write about today, but I grabbed my camera and took a stroll around the yard. I can always find something interesting to photograph, and everything seemed to fit in with my 'winter's coming" theme.

There's this:

Outside faucet cover

and this...

Frost-killed hosta leaves

not to mention this...

Leaves on top of the flower bed
(with a kitty catching the sun)

But some things can still be found that have survived the cold (so far) and have still managed to add a bit of color to our existence.

Like this...

Beautiful kale leaves in our garden

and this...

Parsley leaves in the herb garden

and of course, this...

Leaves on our three Sage plants

There is also another thing that has survived the cold temperatures, mainly because it now lives on the back porch.

Ah, rosemary!

I bought this little rosemary plant towards the end of summer because I wanted to make sure I had some fresh rosemary to use when I cook my Thanksgiving turkey. The label said it was cold-hardy, so I am hoping it makes it through the winter. We will have to wait and see. I have purchased many rosemary plants since we moved to Yakima, and all of them have fallen victim to the low temperatures at some point. At least this one may make it until Turkey Day, and then go to that big Herb Garden in the sky later.


PUZZLE UPDATE

I am slowly getting into the puzzling mood. The last few puzzles I have actually helped Linda put together somewhat. She always gets more of the puzzle done than I do because I am so slow. I will spend hours looking for one piece, while she will move on to another section of the puzzle. I guess that's how we are different as far as puzzle-making. At any rate, this is the one we finished this past weekend.

Linda put this puzzle together last year, but I hardly helped her at all because I had just had my eye surgery. So it was like a brand-new puzzle to me. This one was very hard, but also was a lot of fun. We have a new puzzle we are working on now, one we have done before but also one of my favorites. It's called "The Bizarre Bookshop #2."


PARTING SHOT

Summer Girl has always loved to wallow in the dirt. That's why one of her nicknames is "PigPen." I caught her this morning in the side yard, where she was able to find enough bare dirt to get a good wallow.

That's all for this week, my friends. Join us again next week for more from the Southerner in the Northwest!