Deep in the Fall

Tug on the Cape Cod Canal

This week we are getting our first cool weather nor'easter - rain is forecast for Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday in various amounts and conditions. Skies will be grey all day every day and highs all week will stay under 60° so although we are not expecting a frost here on the Cape we will be losing some heat from the house. I have not turned on the heat yet; Furnace Wars is still on. I'm pretty sure I will make it  until November 1, but after that Shana and I will be on different teams. Fortunately these days she is always hot, so I will not have to resist strenuously right away.  We've been taking advantage of good days to get in a few late season bike rides, getting our exercise and enjoying the beautiful scenery at the same time. There is a nice multi-use path along the Cape Cod Canal which is quite busy in the summer but in fall it is delightful on a bike.

Double Crested Cormorants

I am planning indoor activities this week, mainly holiday gift knitting and binge watching House of Cards on Netflix. What a contingent of vile people! Every episode reveals a more disgusting willingness to cut corners, blackmail, and cheat by every single character. If one seems to be decent you can be sure that the next episode will dispel that illusion. Great show, though. Acting, costumes, sets all perfect. While I binge watch BBC America and Netflix my gift inventory bag is gradually filling up with pretty things. Five completed projects and three others well under way. I do think one of the projects under way will end up being for me because of production issues. It will be pretty good but not quite what I envisioned for a gift. I will have another three or four items that I have not yet started, so it's acceleration time! There will be one gift project that I will make but not knit. Still getting my head around how I want to do it but I am hoping for an exciting and  Pinterest-worthy result.

I resigned my position at A Major Retailer. There is only so much "productivity" I want to provide. When you press for more from people who are doing heavy lifting you are inviting injury and I decided I did not want to do any more. Their loss, although I do miss the people I worked with. Never mind, that's what coffee shops are for! I am happy to have the extra free time, although I have to get it structured a bit better to get more done around the house and take advantage of extra time for projects. My plans for the veggie garden next summer are ambitious in the extreme. There will also be an additional flower bed plus the expansion of another. I am seriously considering asparagus. I think I have a perfect spot where nothing else is planned.

Stairwell at the Schubert Theater

Pumpkin Bread Pudding!

The last two weekends have been busy ones. We attended the opera in Boston one weekend - La Traviatta!  Fancy costumes, beautiful arias! Love, Secrets, Death! The staging was minimal (so modern) but thankfully the costumes were not. I liked the stripped down staging except it seemed unfair for some of the characters to have to sing while crawling about on the floor. Our show was at the Schubert Theater, built in 1910.  It's a rather small house, a bit over 1500 seats, so our seats in the rear of the mezzanine were not bad. We followed the theater up with a stylish meal in a chic bistro including fancy cocktails and desert. It was certainly not an evening we can replicate often, but it was a wonderful treat.


Last weekend a high school friend of Shana's was in town for the Head of the Charles Regatta. Her husband and one son were competing in a couple of races. We met up with Oleta there for lunch and boat race watching. We were lucky enough to have perfect weather and it was great to have a chance to visit. We had an outdoor lunch at the venue, not stellar food but very convenient and the least stressful choice for us so we would not miss the crucial race. Providentially Oleta is an avid gardener and had a lot to say about square foot gardening. It sounds like the way to go, and I can hardly wait to try it. She also introduced us to Uber, Which seems like a great service. We occasionally take cabs when we are in town and it looks like a terrific alternative.

The challenge at home right now is to see how long we can eat out of the pantry, with no purchases outside of milk, bread, eggs, coffee and tea. We are on our second week and still eating good stuff like frozen veggie soup leftovers. Tonight it will be black beans on brown rice, with gingerbread for desert. Next week I may try not purchasing any bread, changing to oatmeal for breakfast instead of toast and making some kind of bread. It's surprising how much we have stockpiled. Of course a few meals have been leftovers from restaurant meals, but only a very few.