Cool Spell - Friday, October 6, 2023

When I staggered through the living room this morning on my way to the coffee pot, I heard the weatherman say, "...so don't call me when you're out tonight and it turns cold all of a sudden."  People in a local garden chat group are asking if they should bring their plants in tonight.  

I am not mentally ready for cold weather, and I don't know what to do with the two plants - a cyclamen and a mother-in-law tongue - that have lived on the back porch this summer.

We have been fighting gnats in the house all summer, catching them in bowls of apple cider vinegar mixed with dish detergent, a tiny bit of sugar, and water.  I understand that there is a gnat that feeds on soil fungus, and I am worried that when I bring the porch plants inside, more gnats will come inside with them.  

I raked my first wagonload of leaves this week.  The tulip poplar in the front yard is shedding leaves, and they collect along the edges of the driveway.  I raked them up and put them in the compost bin, which is almost empty since we moved its contents to the vegetable garden a couple of weeks ago.  Yesterday's rain should help the decomposition process.  

I am keeping a close eye on the sweet gum trees this year.  In March, a tornado took out the giant sweet gum tree in our side yard, and while the tree cutters were here, we had them take out five other ones that were growing around it.  The removal of these trees should put a serious dent in the number of sweet gumballs that we contend with each spring, but there are still sweet gums growing on the other side of the yard, and they drop a lot of gumballs, too.  The Husband and I don't agree on how to deal with them.  I think we ought to clean them up as they fall; he thinks we should wait until spring and get them all at once, since they don't all drop at once.  I'm watching them this year to see what they do as the fall progresses.  They're still green and hanging tight to the trees for now.  If they suddenly dump a big batch of gumballs at once, I'm going after them before they get pounded into the ground by rain and snow.

* * * * * * * * 

This week, I spent some time analyzing where I am on the greeting card project.  So far, I've printed, like, TWO suitable cards but have used up most of my cardstock.  In my defense, there are more cards ready to print, but I'm waiting to print them until all of the test-printing is done using the off-brand ink in the printer.  This morning, I ordered more cardstock.  When everything is in final form and my new cardstock arrives, I'll install the new ink cartridges and have a print-a-thon.

After thinking about how they might be displayed, I ordered a 24-card tabletop display rack.  

See how this charity project is draining my craft funds?

But I am thinking that if the cards go over well, I might try to actually sell some at other venues.  This will at least give me something to do over the winter.