Readying for Fall

I think I've said this before, but the second thing I miss most about Kentucky is fall. The way the leaves change and fall, the crispness of the air, sleeping with open windows, and sitting around fires outdoors.

Fall in Ky courtesy of gosoutheast.com

Although fall doesn't look the same here is Nola, it comes with the perk of Fall Break; four days of  glorious freedom. What will I do? So many options. Yesterday was the first day of this four day weekend and I spent it readying the house and yard for the season change. We never made it out back to clean up after Isaac, so that was first on my list. I pulled two garbage bags full of weeds, dumped all the pots with dead plants in them into the compost, raked a whole lot of leaves, and moved the grills and boil pot to the side. The basil is still holding on strong as well as the mint, and I just didn't have the strength heart to pull it out. Maybe it will come back? I had tomatoes do that in Ky once.

Pardon my lack of a before picture, but take my word for it; it looks much better.

While I was cleaning up the largest butterfly I have ever seen flew into my yard (see the significance of butterflies to Westendorf's here). The photo is bad because he was a fast moving sucker, but I hope the perspective of the giant pot shows you how huge he was.

I have to say they show up all the time. Here's another one that stayed with us for a really long time when we were rock climbing in Slovenia.

On the inside of the house, I cleaned out my closet (to get ready for the Naked Ladies Clothing Swap on Sunday) and unpacked some of my winter clothes. This is the time of year is New Orleans where you want to have your winter and summer clothes on hand for the next couple of months. The temperature has been fluctuating 30+ degrees from day to day. After that I cleaned the whole house and then walked Vera up to the quarter, which is my favorite thing but it's really hard to get home in time when I'm working. Today my friend Sophie and I are heading to the North Shore for some hiking in Fountainebleau State Park, more on that later. Here's a preview of what it looks like up there:

Courtesy of fountainbleau.com