The green grape leaves of home

Lest you think fall is upon us with a vengeance, it is not. It's just getting started, and a bit timidly at that. We're expecting some rain today, and the high temperatures will be lower than they have been this past week. The lows are starting to get lower, too, but not abruptly so. The grape harvest is under way, but there seems to be no hurry as there has been in past years when rain and cool temperatures threatened to rot a good part of the crop. This year summer is going out gently. So far.

The vast majority of the vines in the vineyard still look like this.

On the home improvement front, we have two major projects getting under way. That doesn't count the annual hedge trimming, which just got done. The first is the assembly of the new greenhouse. It will be built against the back of the house. We ordered the "kit" which was delivered during the summer. The guy who will assemble it will start in three weeks. If all goes well, the greenhouse will be ready for plants before the real cold kicks in. It will be great for over-wintering and for starting seedlings in the spring.

The second project is a new shower in the bathroom. Our current modular shower stall (which we had installed in 2005) is showing signs of wear. It has developed cracks here and there and we worry about leaks. So we asked a contractor for an estimate to build a new shower and tile it in rather than replace the modular unit with another. He's also going to install a towel warmer in place of the old bathroom radiator and do a few other small plumbing jobs around the house. We accepted his estimate and he's ordered the materials. Soon he'll get the work started. There will probably be photos.