Fall is upon us, Indian Summer is past

We had an extended Indian Summer this year, pleasant temperatures and little rain through much of October, but the last several days foretold the coming of Fall; whilst still not raining, it had become overcast and brisk, with my fingers getting chilled even with gloves if I spent time working outside.

And today, the rains are upon us.

Makes me glad I spent time yesterday dealing with the pile of Blackberry & Clematis clippings created during the first foray into yard work, back in August. Four yard debris containers later, the two piles which were mixed Blackberry, Clematis, and Rosemary were all gone, except the larger hunks of Rosemary, which I'm still looking at in re uses for the wood; at the least I'm planning on keeping the large diameter sections, so I think it will only take one yard debris container to deal with the to-be-clipped sections of Rosemary.

After that I still face four piles, to wit: 1) Blackberry, Clematis, and some unknown tree, said pile located in the NE corner of the lot. 2) Apple & Walnut clippings, located just south of central in the main yard. 3) Pile of Blackberry and another unknown tree, against the south fence in the area south of the building. 4) Mondo pile of Blackberry, wild pea, and the second unknown tree, all in the off-ground frame I made to prevent anything from rooting.

The first unknown tree has big spiky thorns, up to 3" long, sticking out of the main trunks, like the stereo-typical spikes on a bead of nails; nasty! And they are rigid, not wimpy.

The second unknown tree has an Oak-like bark, in that it has all these canyon-like fissures running the length of the trunk, starting out as mild surface patterning on the twigs and growing deeper as the wood thickens. The color doesn't match my recollection of Oak trees growing up in Salem, OR, in that it's more orangish, drying to an off yellow in the younger sections after being cut, the larger sections to a steel grey/green. Um, thinking about it, this may be two related species, as there are three trees, one in the main yard NW corner, two in the south extension along the fence, and the yellow/orange clippings are from the second area, with the grey/green from the first, and the striations differ between two, yellow/orange having more Oak-like depth... Except I think they show both together? Aughh! "Memory is the second thing to go." "What is the first?" "I forgot."

I should take good pictures and go to the library to research these trees, well, the 2nd two varieties, the first unknown, the one with the spikes, that got clear-cut, the other two merely pruned to my satisfaction. Be nice to know what they are, the wood for the handle came from one of them.

Ooh! Ooh! The rain has stopped, it's getting brighter out! Time to take the mid-day meds and see if I'll be up to going shopping in a bit! At the least I want to make it to Trader Joe's, I have decided that a slight increase in Kidney Stones is an acceptable cost for increased functioning via Chocolate Covered Espresso Beans, being a stimulant that does work with me, and a means of controlled dosage. I really wish the meth-heads hadn't forced them to ban pseudoephedrine, that stuff dealt with allergies and contained the prime anti-narcoleptic stimulant, combined with Ritalin and Adderall it kept me functioning half-way decently; not well enough to be off disability, but well enough to regularly go shopping as my reaction time was dependably prompt.

So. Meds. Wash my hair. See about obtaining CCEB.

Post this Puppy!