Feels Like Fall!

We woke up this morning to 45 degrees and this beautifully clear sky (the slight haze is the smoke from our wood burning stove).  Fall is in the air, no doubt about it!  

Here is a short video of our cozy fire, reigniting it's flame as I opened the air control latch...I thought you might enjoy it:)

After all the deck work yesterday, we spent today enjoying the cool weather.  A few of today's highlights...

We decided to harvest our first carrots, butternut squash, a zucchini flower and a couple ears of corn from the garden this morning (along with some beans and zucchini, usual basket fillins' from the garden these days).  Here is my basket...

...and we ate it for lunch.  Did you know that you can eat carrot greens, raw or cooked?  They taste like parsley, and though we did try them, we will be using them as an herb instead by the handful.  The butternut squash was fantastic.  The smaller carrot was very good (hard to see it under the bigger carrot, and the term bigger is relative, because these are obviously small) but the larger one was not as sweet, we are thinking we left it in the ground too long.  The zucchini flower was delish, sweet, zucchini like, a little crunchy in a soft sort of way (I got to eat it because Mountain Man had eaten one a few days ago).  The corn was very good but the kernels had not developed up the entire cob.  Anyone out there with suggestions for harvesting carrots and corn, please feel free to share your expertise...I would appreciate it:)

We decided to take a riding hike around the mountains on Bear (our ATV).  We drove all over the mountains and found the usual spectacular views, but they were even more spectacular with the crispness in the air and all of nature buzzing with the knowledge that fall was coming.  Here is one of my favorite views near Turkey Knob, our cabin is to the lower right of the photo, down the mountain to the north a bit, and the mountains we see from our cabin (the first photo in the blog today, which a view looking NW) are what your are looking at but now but you are viewing them more from the west. 

We came across this Yellow Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, stunning creature, which was a real treat because even though I see them in our yard all the time, they rarely sit still for long...this one was focused on thistle pollen for an extended period of time!

I love this time of year, when fall is approaching.  But I've only noticed recently that all the colors seem to dull, almost as if getting ready for winter's rest.  Maybe it's natures way of making sure the fall colors are that much more dramatic!  Tipper, the author of one of my favorite blogs, Blind Pig and the Acorn, spoke of a similar concept in a recent post and I thought you might be interested, The Purple Robe of Fall (click on the link to see the post).  I have also noticed that almost all of the flowers that are still blooming this time of year are either purple or yellow...not sure why that is.

I've kept the windows and doors closed most of today, another sign of fall's approach.  We may have another fire tonight, as the temperature has not risen above 66 degrees today, but surely there will be another fire in the morning!  And what makes the cool temperature even more satisfying is that the humidity is now down to 53%!  Talk about cool, crisp air...loving it:)

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,
Lise