Although you may have surmised  from my letters with Carol and Mary Ann, it wasn't all bad news in my vegetable garden this year.  The lovely Willi Galloway, West Coast Editor at Organic Gardening magazine gave me the opportunity to do a guest post/garden tour over at digginfood, her excellent garden and foodie blog.  If you'd like to see it, head on over and while you're there, check out her marinated sheep's milk feta cheese recipe. If only I could eat dairy, I'd be looking for a sheep to milk. Just kidding.

Last week, baby chicks arrived in the mail.  The first time we ordered chickens, I was surprised at the process.  You place your order (which is a bit overwhelming because of all the choices) and then, not unlike bulbs, you select a shipping date.   At the hatchery, once your chicks are hatched, they are inoculated against disease (if you pay extra), but don't worry, no needles are involved.  Then, your peeps are sent in a small box to your local post office. They don't need extra food for the journey because, by absorbing the yolk just before hatching, they have enough sustenance for 48 to 72 hours.  Isn't that a marvelous design?  It's why they can be shipped across the United States. My post office always calls early.  Imagine 30 or 40 little peeps constantly chirping away, and you'll understand why.  This time, it was at 5:57.  After a quick...

Busy this week with maternal duties and, later, writing projects, I nearly failed to glance outside my window.  Thank goodness I did. Beneath a cloudy haze, a golden landscape beckoned.  I grabbed my camera and let the screen door slap shut behind me.  Beneath the soles of my Keds, recycled, river rock crunched, and the wind blew me toward trees and shrubs ablaze with color.  Who needs flowers when your eyes can feast upon this? Crapemyrtles turning shades of ochre and bronze. Grasses singing their sweet, soft melody while their heads whip in the wind. Majestic oaks tower above it all, holding their bronzed arms aloft against the sky. Still, a few flowers hang on, and their colors are true in this subtle October light. Some find fall sad, but I don't.  Two years ago, I wrote about the phenom of fall color, and last year, I went in search...