Oh, you're welcome, Cath! I hope you're doing well!

DH broke his elbow for the second time in a year and a half but is on the mend and getting more cheerful every day as his abilities come back.

I read of floods in Liguria and hope they do not affect you and yours and hoping for no mud slides either.

Cath

Thanks, Cath. I hope your DH continues to mend and to cheer up. I try to keep an eye on my own husband, now in his mid-eighties, still very active but more fragile than he used to be.

We're doing fine here, no floods, but a respectable amount of fall rains, much needed and appreciated, that have allowed us to begin getting some plants out of pots and the propagating beds and into the ground. Today and tomorrow are forecast to rain again: it may be that I'll actually order some plants! very late! I'll see. I've never been able to make myself shop during dog days, even though that's the right time to get orders in. Our best planting season is now through the end of the year, so we have some time still. I think that with the rain coming now we may light our first fire of the year in the wood stove, after days in which we've put on extra shirts and sweaters and piled blankets on the beds, and our near-naked cat has begun the search for warm nests of covers and friendly human bodies. This is his third winter, and I'm not too worried he'll survive it, as he has lived through the previous two. But it's a trying time of year for the poor animal.

The garden looked horrific in August and through a hot dry September, but it always does. By this time it has begun to pick up, wth new growth, the winter grass sprouting, an overall modest look of freshness and abundance. I've been doing cleanup along with the planting, and it does help, in spite of the vast swathes of mess that remain. It's definitely comforting to see the growth that has taken place in the last year. There's so far to go, but there is change, and generally in a positive direction. Autumn is such a fine time, getting new plants in the ground and accomplishing part of the overall design, and knowing that they'll be set, probably, until mid-spring. That is, if we don't have a winter drought. Right now it's raining, so I'm not worrying about that.

I hope that you, too, are enjoying the autumn. Stay safe! Melissa

Melissa,

Bart has not posted in some time. Do you know if she is doing OK?

Cath

I contacted her by e-mail a while (a few months) back, as I too had noticed the lack of posts. She was doing all right at that time.

Thanks for the reassurance.

Cath