Sun is coming into its Fall placement

Gradually the world around me is turning towards the Fall. The small animals are storing up for the winter as they scurry in and out of our yard collecting what they can to fill their little barrows where they will spend the long cold Canadian winter. Very few walnuts fall out of the huge tree because the squirrels have been up there cutting them off and carrying them to their hiding places. But this year they are plentiful and there are a few through the day but gone by the end of the day into hiding!

Yesterday I cut out the dead branches in the elderberry bushes. They are dry enough now that the clippers could break through. Sawing is something I only do as a last necessity. I think we really should pull all of them down and plant some new bushes and will see what spring brings. The flower gardens are not nearly as nice as when Edward managed them. I did not add any annuals; Laportes closed up their business and I would have had to find a new place and just never got to that. The perennials suffered from a lack of water during the drought although all of them still flowered.

The grass is coming back. Although I will have to get a load of dirt next summer and put grass seed down at the back. But that has been needed for a couple of years and the drought only made it worse. Have to decide what to do with half of a garden of raspberry bushes. They have come back nicely in spite of the drought. They seem to prosper under the walnut tree as did the green onions but nothing else really does in the vegetable garden variety. 

Sent the obituary for Edward into the Alumni Gazette today. I have meant to send it before now but each new thing has its strain for me. There is an entire group of people who may not know yet and I am preparing myself for that. Although it is surprising how many people have passed away that we knew in our past. I just never thought it would happen with us this early. But realism does eventually set in as I realize how ill he was back in 2011 before the pacemaker was inserted and the revival which I thought was right back to normal but I am realizing that I continued working full time in the garden from 2011 on and never actually decreased that work load. He was just a lot better after the pacemaker than before it and it gave him a pleasanter further decade of living and especially traveling which he loved doing so much. 

Still in COVID-19 restrictions and I believe we will be wearing masks until next summer and possibly the fall and winter/spring after that. It could be 2023 before life has any semblance of life before COVID-19. But the impact will always be there for this generation including the children who have lost so much in terms of social interaction. Now we must always be on the lookout for potential pandemics as we should have been when this one hit.