The Waiting Game Begins

New growth has slowed down in the garden and now the waiting game begins to see what will ripen - and in the case of the beans, what will dry - sufficiently before the first hard frost hits.  My eggplants and peppers just seemed to be hitting their stride when the nights turned cool.  Tomatoes are just now starting to ripen, even the cherries.  I hope for another month of very warm weather, but what we get is always a toss-up.  Tonight's forecast calls for a low of 2 degrees, so we will be covering what we can with old bedsheets and row cover in case it dips even lower.  It is wearisome to be concerned about frost when September hasn't even arrived yet.

This morning, it was a chilly 4 degrees at 7:00am.  I was up roaming around at 4:30am, and admit to feeling some anxiety that it is no longer broad daylight at that hour.  I don't know where that comes from.  It sits heavily, though, right in my solar plexus, and it goes back almost as long as I remember.  Strange, when I love Fall so much!


A new dahlia opened, a little lopsided.  Pretty colours, though!

The dwarf varieties of sunflower I planted way back in June are just now starting to bloom.  This is a Music Box sunflower, being visited by a bee.

A Music Box sunflower and beside it, a Teddy Bear sunflower just starting to open.

A few more Morning Glories among the corn.

I think I'm going to have some poppies...?

The Snowcap pole beans are taking forever to produce bean pods.  This is the largest one!  There are a handful of tiny ones on other the vines.

Our one and only Red Kuri squash.  Another one was pollinated but didn't quite "take".

One of two Sweet Meat squash.  The other, growing further up the apple tree, has remained quite small.  The one pictured below is about the right size.  Please ripen before the frost hits, pretty please...