TheBanyanTree: Winter Preparations

[Margaret R. Kramer]

The clouds were hanging low and keeping the cold air close to the ground
yesterday.  It felt more like November than October.  That’s the way it’s
been this year.  We had a few warm days early in the month and then the wind
shifted and brought in cool and crisp Canadian air.  The blue sky
disappeared and we’ve been cloaked in gray more than sunlight.  We’ve been
spoiled the past few years with summer-like October days.  It seems we’ve
gone back to a more normal October this year which may bode well for a more
normal winter, since we’ve been in a wimpy winter weather pattern for the
past few years as well.

We had a hard freeze a week and a half ago and most of my potted flowers are
now in the compost pile and the clay pots stored in the massive garage.  The
pansies and mums are still going strong and even my roses are blooming like
crazy.  Ray and I made the two block trek to the nursery yesterday and
bought rose cones and a bale of hay to cover up the garden.  That nursery is
an interesting place, it was our first time there, it was kind of pricey,
but it had the most interesting things that I don’t see anywhere else.  Of
course, I shop mostly at Target, so I’m not going to see much anyway.

The bale of hay wasn’t going to cover up the big garden plot we have out
back.  I didn’t know if we had enough leaves to cover it either.  But I
raked up our front yard and there were enough leaves to go around to all our
garden beds.  I can’t tell you how nice it is to have only two trees in our
yard compared to 12 mature oaks we had at our old house.  Raking leaves
there was a major event, whereas here at the new place, it was time
investment of only an hour to rake and cover up the garden beds.  I can use
the hay for the rose cones when the temperatures dip down to about 10
degrees.  It’s still too warm to cover up the roses.

I took my bike rack off the car.  I wanted to go for one last bike ride, but
it’s been too cold or too rainy or I’ve been too busy.  I’m glad I had a
chance to ride my bike this year and I’m hoping I’ll be able to find more
time to ride next year.  I’m planning to start running again in November.  I
’ve been working with a physical therapist and my knees feel GREAT!  And I
enjoy running in the winter, believe it or not.

Most of our lawn furniture is in the massive garage, but we’ll have our
final push next weekend.    We’ve already checked the furnace filter.  We
wrestled with the storm windows and got them down in position.  I’ll also
check the batteries in the smoke alarms.  I’ll turn off the water to the
outside faucets.  Then we’ll be ready for winter.

Margaret R. Kramer
margaretkramer at comcast.net

There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls.
~George Carlin