All the leaves (just about) have detached themselves and fallen to the lawn. They got a bit of a start ahead of me while I was in Australia but I have gradually caught up. Fortunately, the three large trees take it more or less in turns The red maple has the most leaves and thankfully is last of all. There it is above, about halfway through its shedding. During what we had of a summer, this tree took most of the sunlight and my garden turned out not so well, apart from my lettuces. That area can be seen behind the green fencing and will be a herb garden next year.At least we are back to a sensible time, with the sun getting up at the right time and setting around 5 PM currently. Also, we have had some great autumn weather with bright, crisp days. We have had a couple of snow falls, nothing to disrupt things but harbingers of the cold, dark days to come...the winter of our discontent. This has made it possible for me to be out with the mower, first set to mince up the leaves and then to pick them up along with lawn clippings; all for the compost heap of course. I have made good use of compost in setting up the new garden patch for the coming spring.
The new patch is in a good, sunny position.
It has been well dug and the pH adjusted by adding the right amount of lime (the local soil is quite acidic) and the nitrogen content enhanced by a late summer crop of buckwheat. A final topping of compost will encourage the worms so everything should be nicely set up by the spring planting time. In the background, beneath the hedge, you may be able to pick out a line of black plastic bags. These contain excess leaves that I was not able to start converting to compost. I expect they will render down to leaf mold and be a start for the spring compost heap. The bags had holes in them to assist this process and I will roll them about from time to time to 'push the business along, as it were. This is a trick I picked up from the Green Gardening magazine.The latest compost pile is cooking along nicely. I turned it
over this weekend and had to wear work gloves due to the heat coming from the pile. I have discovered that there is quite a bit of science to making compost but I will not bore you with the four or five phases of the composting cycle. In the photo, you can see what is left of this year's compost alongside the new pile. Notice the garden hose...compost piles need quite a bit of water to keep the microbes happy. My easy-to-assemble and disassemble construction has made turning over the pile wonderfully easy. With so much fall leaf content, it also has quite a sweet smell.Well, enough of the wonders of compost and the Fall chores. Hereabouts there is quite a lot of work to do to get the garden ready for spring and I quite enjoy the work. It is good exercise. Speaking of which, I am back to the gym more regularly and have taken out the roller skis to begin training for the ski season. My first goal is to get back being able to balance on one ski at a time. Cross country skis are designed to have most of the skier's weight on each ski alternately, unless one is gliding down hill. The goal is to get maximum glide from the leading ski from the time it is placed ahead until it becomes the driving ski. This requires balance and it more demanding when on a real ski on real snow, which is hardly ever an even surface. Roller skis are more stable but, if one pushes the body too far to the side it can turn into an out of balance situation. Falling to the black top is not desirable so there can sometimes be a quick skip sideways to keep upright!
I think I have a photo somewhere of me on roller skis.Finally, I have visited several times now the local glider club. I did quite a bit of gliding and flying when living in Australia. I like the look of the local operation which has its origins in the early days of soaring in North America. Who knows...I may join this club next spring and get back to a little soaring. I am going to conclude this post with a couple of gliding pictures; one of me sitting in a glider and the other of mountain soaring over the Mt. Beauty area in Victoria, Australia, so you will get some idea of the magic of soaring.
These were taken in the early '90s. In the winter, these slopes are covered with snow, so I have done a deal of skiing in the country below.
