Hello, Autumn!

The highs are down in the low 90's now and since it's the middle of September, I can say that Fall is here. I am ready. I like living in a continental climate. I like the seasons. And I am always ready when the next one arrives.

This week I had the opportunity to see Temple Grandin speak at OSU. It was awesome!! If you don't know who she is, google her. She's the best. I drove up with one of my friends from the zoo and we had a great time! She has land and gardens and animals and I'm going to go visit her soon. I sent her home with a bunch of seeds and my Seed To Seed book since she's all into that and doesn't have the book.

Speaking of, I've decided to scale down next year. The outdoor gardens are going to be much less. The vegetable garden in the back is going away. Like, it'll be lawn again. The long bed beside the driveway will be filled to the brim with sweet potatoes, which is the only thing I've found to keep out weeds. And then you get sweet potatoes! That only leaves the two beds by the house for weeding and other maintenance. I think that'll be much easier on me. I just have too many other interests to keep up with the gardens.

When I went up to OSU this week I also recieved a garden spider. One of Mom's coworkers brought it in for me. I've missed having garden spiders around. They named her Charlotte. I brought her home and released her outside my kitchen window. She made a web there and so when it got dark I would turn on the light above the sink to attract bugs. Yesterday when my family was here they got to see her with a moth. Mom was really happy that she was doing so well. This morning I looked out the window and there was no spider!! So I went outside and looked all over. No Charlotte, but there is an egg sac in the corner of the window! I need to do some research and see what I'm supposed to do to keep the sac protected. Probably nothing. But I want to make sure.

Today I'm going to go to the state fair and also make a red velvet cake from scratch. I also hope to take pictures of all my new plants. That's probably enough, don't you think?