thanks! it was time for a break, and this is a nice thread to have it with....

i was just out in my new garden. it's a real fall day, cool and threatening frost and snow....the serviceberries and dogwoods are turning red, the chocolate-leaved eupatorium is covered in white flowers, and the false spirea and currants are yellow, as are some of the maple leaves hovering overhead. i still have blooms on my 'mexican hats' and new england asters. it's pretty nice back there....

tonight it'll be our family of four, plus 3 inlaw's, for turkey dinner tonight. we'll have turkey, wild rice and mushroom dressing, gravy of course, cashew and peaches and sweet potatoes casserole, green beans with almonds, mashed potatoes, homemade cranberry orange sauce....followed by apple cranberry crumble and whipped cream for dessert! yum!!!

the kids helped clean the house and set the table, so we're just about ready.

my teenage son, unfortunately, just went out with his dad to a funeral of a classmate...a friend who was killed in a car accident on his way home from volunteering at a hospital last week after school. such an event, on a day like this, truly makes one thankful for the important things in life....

today is jewish yom kippur as well. while my family is together being thankful, my friend jeff's family is together being repentant. added together, we figure it's probably a pretty balanced combination.

for the rest of the afternoon, i'll spend some time with the harp and the dulcimer, and perhaps set up the fireplace for our first evening autumn fire ....

~black walnut