Monday, November 4, 2013

Seasonal Notes

November marched in with big splashing steps through puddles. Today a let-up and, with the sun lifting all hearts, the autumn colors around here were quite unbelievable this morning—probably peaking, we thought.

Belatedly I updated my chart on World Series winners, first shown on this blog October 7, 2011. Brigitte asked for some dates on that chart, and that version I show next.

Yes, the period in which World Series have been held now extends for 111 palindromic years into the past. The teams marked in green are those that we have rooted for; the years when those teams last won a series are shown—and those dates illustrate how rarely most fans are able to celebrate a World Series victory. The drama of this season for us was simply being in the playoffs. The sadness came when we learned that the Tigers’ manager, Jim Leyland, a man we much admire, is retiring. The famous Uncertainty Principle, therefore, will overshadow the 2014 season…

Hereabouts we are, this time of year, close observers of temperatures. The time to bring the plants indoors are fast approaching. Last year it was November 11. It’s very cool but still just above freezing by night. Everything is ready, however. We’ve polled our jade plan population and noted that we have too many to fit the winter, indoor space. I put ten out on the driveway with a sign yesterday:  Yours For the Taking. By late this afternoon all had been taken—and the last visitor seemed to like my sign, and the brick that held it in place, as much as the jade plants. Everything had vanished.

Last tomato note. Our plants are still attempting to make red tomatoes out of green ones—but in a fit of perversity they are producing fruits one half of each of which is red!

The most novel seasonal event this year was a fruit fly invasion of our kitchen—due no doubt to leaving the sunroom door open on very frequent trips in and out as winter’s preparations were ongoing. We’ve discovered that the way to deal with fruit flies is to use a vacuum cleaner to catch them and, by night, to trap them using apple-cider vinegar as bait.

Raking is still largely ahead. The bright colors, thick in the trees, are, on the ground, still relatively thin and brightly yellow.

1 comment:

  1. Well into November and I'm just now reading this post. I trust all the leaves have long been raked and bagged by now.

    The post did remind me to pass along a movie recommendations. The movie is called Moneyball, and it is an interesting baseball picture. Put it on your list!

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