A Glorious Sunny Day!

It's a glorious, blissful day, warm with a tinge of fall crispness, a sweet breeze, bright and happy sun, and a brilliant blue sky. Though I do adore Autumn, this year I'm having a tough time letting go of summer days (the cooler ones). Just a few days ago we were seeing the end of a string of grey, cold, damp days that really affected my mood for the worse. I'm not ready for a season of that yet!

Anyway, this morning there are lots of good things to talk about. I just came inside from studying a beautiful Woodpecker traversing the giant trees in my yard for a mid-day snack, breathing in wonderfully woodsy air (I love living near the park and so many trees), soaking up some sun, and watching my kitty having an adventure in the yard. AND, I got package in the mail!


Sophie!

I love packages! I recently ordered an amazing handcrafted bracelet from my EtsyVeg pal Debbie of For the Animals Sanctuary! Debbie makes incredible vegan jewelry with passionate messages about compassion, and 100% of the profits from her Etsy shop go to running her wonderful non-profit animal sanctuary! I love my bracelet, which reads "ahimsa", or "non-violence" in Sanskrit, a way of living that involves passionate avoidance of injury to any living being through thought, spirit, intention, word, or action. I am very familiar with the concept from my yoga and Buddhism studies, and hold it close to my heart. The bracelet is sooo pretty, wonderfully made, and I love the chain and adorable heart clasp. I feel happy just having it on! Thanks so much, Debbie! Check out Debbie's shop to see her love-inspired work. :)



My beautiful bracelet! I love it! :D

Another good thing about the warmth and sun sticking around longer this year is that we still have plenty of lovely blossoms adorning our porch and yard. As I walked around today, I also visited our garden and the last of the tomatoes still growing.




A Clematis bud- the vine is still growing and blossoming.

Our garden was the source of much joy throughout the summer as we tended and weeded and tried to balance the nutrients in our soil with fertilizer and compost. The yield, however, was somewhat of a disappointment, as you know if you've been following my garden updates. Our lettuce and spinach were a bust. We got some tasty greenbeans and a few handfuls of oddly-shaped cucumbers. lol Lots of tomatoes, though pretty puny (and really yummy). Finally, within the past few weeks, we tried again to dig up our carrots and... we had some! They were ittybitty (we're chalking it up mostly to not thinning enough and packed soil), but they were there, and were so sweet and flavorful. The next step is to ready the garden for the winter.


The last one standing- our tomatoes! We had intended to plant a fall crop of lettuce and spinach, but got a bit too lazy for it.


Our teeny weeny carrot harvest, all pretty and multi-colored! It's a start- next year we're going for big!