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