The Quiet Dark
I took a bath, last night, for the first time since probably April. Candlelight, bath salts, and plenty of hot water in the short, deep soaking tub. It's a lot like the ship's tub we'd had installed in the master bath of our Redmond house, where space was at a premium and I really wanted a bath that would take a minimal amount of water. I don't like using that much water just for my comfort and when the tub is small and narrower, but deep, I displace enough water that it takes less than if I took a shower to get a good long soak in.
I needed it, as the weather has turned cold. The leaves froze and turned their colors, and are now going brown at the tops of the trees as they die completely. The wind howled and buffeted against the walls and windows by the bath, even as I soaked in my quiet. This morning most of the trees were denuded of most of their leaves, and the front yard was filled again with leaves.
"I just vacuumed yesterday," John said ruefully as we walked back to the house after dropping Jet off at the bus. The leaves crunched underfoot and the air was sharp with cold.
No mist of our breaths, though, there's so little humidity here that it just evaporates.
John spent a day getting all the dead tomato plants pulled up, the dead and curled up zucchini plants yielded a half dozen fingerling fruit. There's a tub of green tomatoes now ripening in the garage. The raspberries, hearty plants that they are, are still ripening berries, and Jet goes to pick them every other afternoon.
I pulled all the onions that had pushed themselves out of the ground, the carrots are still out there, monster-sized, and will only be sweeter with a freeze or two. The herb box came in last night.
So winter is on its way, and the garden is now prepped for it. My garlic didn't come up at all, so I may have to plant more now for next year. But then I didn't do that good a job of watering things first thing in the spring this year. So a lot of my seed starts didn't, like the onions.
The chopped up leaves from the front yard now cover everything. It'll keep the chives and onions alive for the winter.
Jet and I went through my bundle of kimono and haori from my share of a remnants bundle I bought more than a decade ago. There's a brown haori with the arrows of the Shogun on it that fits him just fine, and it'll go over just about anything he can wear. I don't have a traditional obi, but he's not going to be wearing it traditionally, either. *laughs* It's close enough to a kimono for him. It's all silk, inside and out, and I half wonder how well it'll hold up at the Boy Scouts' party on Friday, it's solid and thick, but the sleeves are going to get into everything. I half wonder if I should figure out how to tie his sleeves up with a string.
But he's really proud of it, so I may not.
I got to handle and look at the other kimono as well as the sheer black haori with the white mons on the back, that shows patterns through the cloth. There's one midnight blue kimono with silver thread shot through flowers of white. A kimono with all the reds, golds, and oranges of the sunset I'd seen the other night. Another furosode of mint green with flowers twined among temples. I should probably wear one of them for Halloween as well, with leggings and a turtleneck underneath, I suspect, just to be warm enough.
The bath warmed me through, and made for a really good night's sleep. After the drive and a night being completely unable to sleep, it was nice to finally sleep so deeply I didn't wake up until the alarm went off to get Jet to school on time.
I should do that again, soon.
I needed it, as the weather has turned cold. The leaves froze and turned their colors, and are now going brown at the tops of the trees as they die completely. The wind howled and buffeted against the walls and windows by the bath, even as I soaked in my quiet. This morning most of the trees were denuded of most of their leaves, and the front yard was filled again with leaves.
"I just vacuumed yesterday," John said ruefully as we walked back to the house after dropping Jet off at the bus. The leaves crunched underfoot and the air was sharp with cold.
No mist of our breaths, though, there's so little humidity here that it just evaporates.
John spent a day getting all the dead tomato plants pulled up, the dead and curled up zucchini plants yielded a half dozen fingerling fruit. There's a tub of green tomatoes now ripening in the garage. The raspberries, hearty plants that they are, are still ripening berries, and Jet goes to pick them every other afternoon.
I pulled all the onions that had pushed themselves out of the ground, the carrots are still out there, monster-sized, and will only be sweeter with a freeze or two. The herb box came in last night.
So winter is on its way, and the garden is now prepped for it. My garlic didn't come up at all, so I may have to plant more now for next year. But then I didn't do that good a job of watering things first thing in the spring this year. So a lot of my seed starts didn't, like the onions.
The chopped up leaves from the front yard now cover everything. It'll keep the chives and onions alive for the winter.
Jet and I went through my bundle of kimono and haori from my share of a remnants bundle I bought more than a decade ago. There's a brown haori with the arrows of the Shogun on it that fits him just fine, and it'll go over just about anything he can wear. I don't have a traditional obi, but he's not going to be wearing it traditionally, either. *laughs* It's close enough to a kimono for him. It's all silk, inside and out, and I half wonder how well it'll hold up at the Boy Scouts' party on Friday, it's solid and thick, but the sleeves are going to get into everything. I half wonder if I should figure out how to tie his sleeves up with a string.
But he's really proud of it, so I may not.
I got to handle and look at the other kimono as well as the sheer black haori with the white mons on the back, that shows patterns through the cloth. There's one midnight blue kimono with silver thread shot through flowers of white. A kimono with all the reds, golds, and oranges of the sunset I'd seen the other night. Another furosode of mint green with flowers twined among temples. I should probably wear one of them for Halloween as well, with leggings and a turtleneck underneath, I suspect, just to be warm enough.
The bath warmed me through, and made for a really good night's sleep. After the drive and a night being completely unable to sleep, it was nice to finally sleep so deeply I didn't wake up until the alarm went off to get Jet to school on time.
I should do that again, soon.