patty, did you clear out a lot of the goatheads? Is that where your guests will park? Good luck with those comings and goings.

Monday with a vengeance and I'm hitting the ground running by planning for the next two to three weeks. Since autumn is here I can't dawdle when scheduling that roof work, but I have an almost eight-day cat sitting gig coming up and a couple of can't-miss appointments. I need to be here the entire time to supervise or answer questions, so can't be gone intermittently for hours as the top of the house is replaced.

Indoors I've looked at the sorry state of the plant area in my sunroom. It is reduced to several pothos, spider plants, some vining succulents, two aloe veras, a tired orchid, and one remaining xmas cactus sprouted off of one of the old ones that finally gave up. I need to rehome some of these and see if I can find a couple of other types of plants that will survive modest amounts of attention. This morning the orchid is getting a soak in water with an orchid-specific fertilizer to see if it will consider blooming again.

Outside things have perked up after installing the new string of LED bulbs. They are a happy upgrade in a season when pretty lights can improve moods. The length is the same as before, but the simple remote of the past is now a pad with many choices and 128 "modes." I played with them a bit and settled on a pulsing twinkle, much like the old string would perform. This gives me color choices to use for holidays and seasons.

I changed my mind about trashing the old plastic trash can. The lid is going, but the can itself can be offered on the buy nothing group (there are a couple of gardeners who might want it for something) or it can be tossed into the recycle bin at the village. Why send plastic to the dump when it can be reused or recycled, even as tattered as it is.

Last night I made a batch of my crispy pecans except I forgot which recipe I was making and baked them at 300 for an hour instead of 170 for four hours. They're a bit brown, but I can live with them. (They got the granola treatment.)