September

Every morning, while waiting for the coffee machine to heat up,  I have been looking through the garden doors at the clear cloudless blue sky sunshine,  smiling and saying out loud, "another lousy day in paradise", a line from a 'you had to be there' running joke from a long ago trip. Just when I had been, almost, bemoaning the short 6 week summer we had, along comes this - 10 days, and counting, of warm, sunny days. Record breaking highs for this time of year I'm informed by the online local papers (which is not all that high, if the truth be known, but it's all relative I guess).

It appears that this is a new season, an in-between summer and fall season. It very clearly is not summer. Although sunny and warm in that sunshine, at night those 20-something temperatures fall to lows of 8-9 and boy is it brisk out there as I venture out into the dew with coffee in hand to see what's happened overnight in the garden.

The garden is gorgeous. Things that have been underwhelming performers through the summer's heat are now putting on new growth and flowers. Everything was newly planted this year, as there was nothing when we came here, and shrubs and perennials are settling in, and those that aren't are being moved or sent to compost. I've been scrubbing out hundreds of pots (note to self - clean as you go), and caulking the windows of the GreenHouse, which I'm not at all sure will solve my leakage problems. New planting beds are being prepared, and ongoing water and deadheading maintenance gets one up close and personal with each plant. I spend almost all my time outside in the garden, working or reading - the rest I spend taking pictures, blackberry picking and exploring new beaches in nearby communities.

When Number 2 Son Mike was here a few weeks ago we went for a walk along a nearby trail and found a big blackberry patch. We stopped and picked and picked and ate and ate, until finally I had to say "I'm STUFFED", which is not a usual description of berry eating. I have been back to that patch several times since, picking pounds/kilos of the stuff, or "kilometers of blackberries", which refers to my ill advised attempt to speak Italian in Ischia, where one afternoon, while everyone on the island was in siesta mode, I was trying to order a "kilometer of cherries" in the local language. I recognized my mistake almost immediately, but the old woman in the shop didn't bat an eye and weighed them up for me, no doubt laughing her head off once I was out of sight. I certainly was.

The Fuchsia Summer GreenHouse

I've been photographing the Fuchsia Ranch collection and taking note of how the plants have behaved this season and what I may do with them next season. I use Aperture for my photo library and post-production and I'm playing with its book making feature as a way to keep a record of The Ranch this year.  This is in keeping with what has become a feeling that if I don't start to organize and produce something I can touch and keep, all these thousands and thousands of digital images I have on my computer and add to every day will end up one day in some massive crash or change of software or whatever. Which might not be a bad thing for most of it which leads to the point that it is also a way to better pay attention, select the best, critique the composition, reshoot, compare shots, adjust, and generally learn my craft. I have a few other projects in mind to get these photos off digital and published in hard copy form to share, so learning what this book feature can do, or learning enough to know whether I want to continue to use this software or go on to try something else.

Screenshot of the Aperture Book software

Fuchsia Deep Purple

Living these days outside in the sunshine has been wonderful but clearly this season is changing. The light is different, the angle of the sun is decidedly lower and by late afternoon the once long sunny backyard is in full shade as the sun quickly disappears behind the tall trees of the forest at the end of the street. Here at 49.3564 N by 7:30 it is dark out.

The town also feels different. The tourists are gone and even with days and days of sunshine, the vibe of this summer town has changed. We've been here, in this new home, for about a year, and we've barely scratched the surface.

Still. May be time for a change of scenery.