Blogging about the tasks to complete between now and winter

[In searching for pears, Blogger wouldn't let any photo show up here except this one. I have a complaint submitted. Anyway, we need any rain that hangs in any clouds.]

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Several October tasks still loom: working up the small, drought-stricken, windfall pears is an annual October activity. A stranger stopped by last week. “What are you going to do with the pears, and may I have some?” At this writing, I have “worked up” four batches (with one more waiting), each batch resulting in  three containers of stewed, frozen fruit.

Another imminent must-do I've done is rearrange the old breakfast room to host the outside plants. With windows on the east, south and west, including the upper glass of the door, it the lightest place inside the main floor. I lugged in two heavy wooden benches and as many plant stands as I could fit around and in front of them. The small, round table ––with a pad of plastic covering the top–holds the split-leaf philodendron. And inside that large pot, two smaller ones fit nicely.

A nine-year-old dish garden and a new one from a son on Mother’s Day, were separated, ala Janet Carson’s suggestion, and now I have seven pots instead of two. A maranta (prayer plant) is on a bench, and the huge fern of Mom’s comes inside tomorrow before the night temps get to 42 degrees.

Two Boston ferns purchased several years ago had a hard time, both over the winter and during this torrid summer. I’ve groomed them so they look a lot better.

The five kinds of begonias [pictured(finally!) is brother Guy's plant] fared well over the summer. The tall corn plant sits on a bench, and Mom’s Norfolk pine occupies a low table. Smaller plants fit into that large pot, also.

An airplane plant––in an oblong pot––will fit on the sill of the high window in the bathroom. But the mother-in-law’s tongue perished during last winter from its place on the back porch. As did the peace lily, the sheffelera, and a Boston fern given to me from a son’s neighbor. A generous friend shared a part of her sheffelera, which is growing nicely, and my sister gave me her extra peace lily.

I do believe in resurrection, for that Boston fern from Hot Springs––only crisp, brown stalks this spring––came alive again and is a beautiful specimen.

Another thing that needs doing before winter sets in is covering the outsides of the several window ACs. The black things you buy for that purpose are too ugly. I’ll think of something.

Also, I need to put new glass in the top section of the back storm door. One of these days, I’ll have the entire door replaced. Sure—about the same time I have someone repair the living room ceiling, replace all the windows with simulated wood ones. “They look like the original ones, but they are expensive,” my sibling said. I knew that.

I won't put away the hose until it rains. In fact, just tonight--with the aid of the motion light and the front-porch light, I watered the annuals and the mums. Oh, I know watering is supposed to be done in the mornings, but . . .

And there's weather stripping to add around the drafty doors. Always something to do in October, isn’t there?

Enjoy the tasks you've set for yourself. IF you can.
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PL - dba lovepat press, 2015

HER FACE IN THE GLASS now available in e-book and softback from Amazon. Reviews appreciated.