Fall

Tomorrow is the first day of December and probably the beginning of winter. We had snow last week and there was potential for it this afternoon (thankfully it passed us) even though it is technically still fall. Some of the past few weekends have been so nice and sunny that it seems like a bit of a joke that winter is around the corner. The leaves have finally fallen from the trees, including the neighbour’s. It didn’t seem fair that we were raking up leaves when our tree still had most of its leaves. 

We had a visitor a few weeks ago – a little woodpecker. I could hear him and then I finally saw him. I enjoyed watching him hop along and stopping to drill away, thankfully in the neighbour’s tree. We found a small hole in our tree a few weeks before, and while our tree is not the best looking around, we don’t want to replace it yet. I was happy to see the little guy pecking another tree and not mine. 

 

With the days becoming shorter I haven’t been seeing my little bunnies on my way home. Normally there’s one on the neighbour’s lawn (he has better grass than us) and some across the street along the transit way (again, the grass is in much better shape than ours). 

 

This summer there was a little guy who I would see every morning. It was nice to see him grow as the weeks went by. You might have to look closely, he’s really little.

I’m going to miss going to the market for my produce. It was always so hard not to come home with more than I needed. It always looked so good, and of course, fresh.

The Parkdale will be reopening soon, albeit with Christmas trees and winter greenery. In the last month or so I’ve often left work when it was getting dark and getting groceries after the sun had set didn’t seem the same. And even though the supermarkets will still have Ontario produce for a bit longer, you can get some cool things at the market, like purple carrots or cauliflower.

There are a few upsides to fall (many if you love winter). I don’t need to battle with the squirrels over my tulips. They won’t get annoying until April.

And there are pomegranates. I love pomegranates and always have. I found some at Farm Boy the other day and I couldn’t resist picking them up. I know there are many ways to have them – salad, juice – but I like them eaten right out of the shell. I usually do it alone as I feel a bit like a savage, bent over my plate with a tea towel draped across my front and juice dripping from my hands. The Honey saw it once and he wasn’t impressed.

No more BBQing. 

No more watermelon.

And no more days eating in the backyard.

Bye bye summer.