Preparing for winter

This has been a busy week around here. Winter is coming and fast. Right now it is hard to tell autumn is even here –the nights have a crisp feeling but the days are still climbing into the 80s. Yes, this is the South after all. It wasn’t this bad, once upon a time. I’m in northern Alabama, not down by the coast. But things have changed over the past years as the climate has began warming up. The trees are turning and they are a glorious sight. Reds and gold everywhere this year! Even my 12-inch high crabapple, still in a pot, has beautiful leaves.

I have been busy tucking my garden in for the winter. This primarily means mulching. I’ve got a lot of pruning to do as well but I can’t seem to find my pruning shears. The fall garden is doing well –lettuce, mustard, collards and cabbage. This year I am growing the prettiest lettuce I have ever seen. It is called firecracker and it is the deepest, most intense red I have ever seen on a plant. Just looking at it is a joy.

Pretty soon it will be time to give up the ghost, pack away my summer clothes and bring out my winter ones. No more short-shorts and tank tops until mid-April. But that is perfectly okay; winter is just another part of the cycle. I actually like winter because it gives me a chance to slow down and catch up on my reading. I do wish it would get a mite bit colder here than it does –I would love to see snow! I mean a real good snowfall, not the dusting we get once every couple of years. I’ve never seen more than an inch of snow and that just the once. I have this recurring dream in the winter where I wake up and there is snow up to the windowsills. Ah well, you can’t have everything and I wouldn’t know what to do with that much snow!

I hope everyone’s preparations for winter are going well.