Subtle shift.

There has been a subtle shift in the air, my thoughts, my words, my lists.  Things like "before winter" have entered into my thinking.  Never mind that my spring and summer lists still have lots of items unchecked.  Those have become "next" spring and summer lists.  We are nothing if not flexible, right?  The maple across the road is beginning to show red highlights.  There were raspberries in my breakfast granola this morning - blueberries are no longer fresh, but frozen.  The tomato plants are shuddering to a halt.  Thank goodness.  Even with one cherry tomato plant and one grape tomato plant, they keep on giving by the armful.  I will be doing some selective yoinking in the garden this weekend.  Bean plants were out a few weeks ago, same with the cukes (with the exception of my "special" cukes, which have yet to produce ONE cucumber of any size for seeds...) and zucchini.  I have one yellow squash plant still cranking out and the pepper plants are FINALLY producing ripe peppers.  The kale is magnificent!  I am getting more than my daily needs of leafy greens.  My lone eggplant plant has produced...one. 

Breakfast on the go.

My roofer sent me a text this morning (we, apparently, are both early risers) asking if it would be okay to drop off some equipment this morning.  Oh, yes, Sweet Louise, it's okay.  He came around 7 with the scaffolding and other bits and said that he is bringing extra help so that they can try to finish it in one day.  That is good news, as Sunday's forecast is for showers and thunderstorms.  Once the roof is on, I can wash the front of the house, which gets little light and grows an nice, moldy finish every other year.  I also need to wash down the gutters, clean them out and finally - after 10 years - take down the Christmas lights that the last owner left as permanent decoration.  You know how it is - you mean to take them down, but they slip your mind and only slide back into your consciousness when it is inconvenient to take them down.  Those are things that only make it onto the Mental List.  The Mental List does not count.

This weekend is my mother's 93rd birthday and we are celebrating (such as she will let us) by making a picnic lunch and having it in their gazebo.  This means that I will have to leave the dogs in the house without parental guidance.  With a bevy of roofers, on scaffolding, no less, whacking away at their house.  I hope my living room holds up under the assault.