Morning

64°f, about1m 18°C. Foggy, raining and humid. Clouds and showers should clear away today. 

Rabbit, rabbit rabbit! Outside my window leaves are drifting down, a welcoming confetti for October. 

This is my usual morning view now that I am having my morning brew (PG Tips tea) inside. It is just too humid to enjoy being on the porch this week. I love the coziness of this room and find it so relaxing. There is just something about soft lights and old log walls.

The stinkbugs have arrived. Just another insect scourge, rivaling the Asian lady beetle invasions, which still happen although not as intense as they were 10 years ago. I remember in the 50s when Japanese beetles were the big insect enemy.  Now we have the emerald ash borer, the lantern fly, carpenter bees, stink bugs, lady beetles, and this summer some kind of HUGE hornet that is active at night, and can hollow out an entire apple in one day. I kid you not, these things are scary big. This summer also saw an influx of yellow jackets in our region, so bad that Larry decided not to brushhog the areas he usually cuts, because being attacked by angry yellow jackets while driving a tractor on a hillside is no joke. So those small fields will wait for Spring to be mowed.

Well, that was a tangent I didn't intend to take! If it sounds very buggy here, I assure you we have nothing on the South! Just annoyances, and we are by no means overrun by them, just annoyed. Except for the ash borer, which has sadly killed almost all the ash trees.

Nothing much going on here. We took a china cabinet to our Ripley booth, so that will be the last of booth work for a few weeks probably. (Surgery day is tomorrow) Larry worked on an outside project when we got home and I did the usual housework, finally planted my mums now that we have had rain, and cooked dinner for Aaron and Sarah. They installed 6 of her 12 solar panels, but the company did not send enough mounting brackets so the other 6 will have to wait until more arrive. They had to devise an inventive system to haul the panels up to the roof but it worked beautifully.  Aaron is a genius at such things, and Sarah's no slouch.

I am still following news from North Carolina. What good news to read from Barbara Rogers that she is safe! I was so worried about her.  The hardest hit areas are only a few hours from here, bordering our state, so they feel like neighbors. It seems that many people retired to that region, and that tourism was booming. I was glad to see that the Cajun Navy had arrived, and that people were even bringing in pack mules to reach the more isolated areas. And helicopters,  lots of them. There is also a call out for private planes. It is amazing how people will come together is such a crisis. This is going to be a long haul though, and I hope the help doesn't stop as adrenaline slows down.

The dressing table is finished, just waiting until we can find one more of the right kind of mirror mounts. Then the mirror will be cleaned and it will be ready for the booths, sometime down the road. 

I also finished my book, the 4th in the Maisie Dobbs series. I have the last 3 waiting for me when I feel well enough to read again, so that's a pleasure to look forward to!

Today I will string my hot peppers, pack what I will need for the hospital, review the information book one more time, try out the electric leg compression thingies, finish up a little work in the garden when the rain quits, catch up the laundry, clean up and preserve the Chicken of the Woods mushroom Larry found yesterday,, and maybe make cookies for the work crew. That should keep us busy enough that I won't be thinking maybe I shouldn't do this knee thing! That thought has sure crossed my mind.

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