Winding down

This year's vegetable garden was a great success, and there's still life in it. The recent heat wave (that we're coming out of now) slowed things down. I think the zucchinis are mostly done. The tomatoes continue to ripen, but there's very little new fruit (I picked another bucket-full yesterday). The green and yellow beans are long gone and the Swiss chard is limping along; maybe cooler temperatures will help. Our winter squash, what I thought would be pumpkins but turned out to be sucrines de Berry, look good. They're turning that characteristic tan color, like butternut squash. I'll keep them on the vine as long as I can.

The end-of-summer vegetable garden. Weeds are creeping in, but that's ok at this point.

This afternoon we're expecting a delivery of firewood for the winter. It also looks like there might be rain before we can start stacking it. It'll take us a few days to stack it all, more if rain delays us.

A mechanical grape harvester showed up out back at five this morning. That's a sign that the growers are trying to get the grapes in before rain can plump them up with excess water.