Started cleanup of vegetable gardens and the rose bed.  Cut down all the roses.

Did the CSA run and stopped at Jack in the Beanstalk.

We stopped eating meat, poultry and fish at the beginning of July.

Not having grown up in a vegetarian household, this has been a learning experience for me, particularly around seasonings.

Last night, I made a ratatouille with carrot greens, high in Vitamin C but bitter.  The base recipe calls for white vinegar which brought the acidity “over the top”, so I dissolved some brown sugar to make a sweet/sour, Eastern European-style stew.

Many cuisines make heavy use of vegetables, and I’ve tried different combinations of seasonings: Japanese, Southwestern, Middle Eastern, Italian, Indian.

I set the clocks back this morning, including the cryptic touchscreen ones.

Didn’t get outside at all except to water the sod this morning and fetch the paper.

Made a sweet/sour ratatouille with onion, garlic, eggplant, carrots, potatoes, parsnips, carrot greens and kale.  Roasted kale and acorn squash.  Mainly wanted to clear the counter of the poor vegetables that have been sitting on it for days.

I finished a little JSON programming challenge for a job application.

We did the laundry and changed the sheets.  Ron did the transfer station run and cleaned up after supper.

We stopped in to see Janine’s art exhibit at the library and put in an order for her photo of a Maine lighthouse.

We went to the “Soup Bowl” fundraiser at the Tribal headquarters and met a gracious couple who came all the way from Truro for the event.  She’s a selectman, he’s a former Special Ed teacher who’s made the papers with his organic gardening experience.

Later on, we attended a concert by Rhythm Future Quartet at the Cotuit Center for the Arts that rocked Ron’s world: very hard to do.

I bought him an MP3 of their first album this morning.  He complained because there was “just music” and no liner notes.

Can’t win.

Got three bottles of red wine, one for us, two for gifts, and found that the cork(s) had dried.

Decanted our bottle this morning; Ron returned the other two.

Ron arranged the sod/turf to finish off the corner garden project.  It looks quite nice.

Finished the tulip bed today.  Added two more bags of topsoil and mulched.  Tony, bless him, took a load of gravel for his driveway.  Hope he takes the rest tomorrow.

Ron and I, mostly Ron, did leaf cleanup.

We brought a small load to the transfer station.

Ron made a nice lunch: bagel breakfast sandwiches and salad from last night.

Got a project from Jim.  Struggling with changes to NEPS and Warranty.

Only 20 or so kids for Halloween.

We both got fired today.

The grow light arrived for the hibiscus.  Ron put it together.

I was able to plant the perennials from last week’s scavenging.

Ron drove Robert home; we gave P&B their anniversary gifts, which were well received.

Ron did the laundry, which got us caught up from the weekend.

I get to do Fall cleanup tomorrow.

Baked goods from yesterday for breakfast.

We’re anticipating a lot of rain and wind, through tomorrow morning, so punted on Fall cleanup and planted almost 100 tulip bulbs.  We put down 7 bags of topsoil in the tulip bed.

Yesterday afternoon, I stopped by Green Goddess to get some soap and mentioned to Andrea that I was on my way to buy a pot for the hibiscus.  She gave me one that she didn’t need and refused to take even a penny for it!  Ron and I washed and sterilized it today.

We got the hibiscus washed, pruned and potted.

Anticipating the storm, I cleaned up the yard.  Nice to see it looking like something other than a third world dump.  Someone in the gardeners FB page has a place where I can get rid of the gravel from the old driveway, which I dug up for the tulip bed.  Maybe next weekend.

Ron also drove Thing 1 and Thing 2 to work and did the transfer station run.

“Little” was here for a while.

I uploaded new files to fix some bugs in Warranty.

We went to southern RI yesterday for a concert by Biscuit City.  Stayed at a motel across from Scarborough Beach in Narragansett.  I got to see the sun rise over the ocean.  Sand is so fine there it doesn’t even stick to your feet!

We’d had an exceptional vegetarian meal at the Crazy Burger cafe.  Enough to feed us for lunch again today.

On the way back, we stopped for breakfast at a terrific spot near Bonnet Shores, the Coffee ‘n Bagel Connection.  Came home with 3 small bags of takeout, too!

Made another stop at an extraordinary nursery, Botanica, in Portsmouth.  Found a concrete cat sculpture for the garden.

Got home around lunch time.  Ron mowed the lawn and I dug out a tulip bed.  We picked up the grands and 3 large pizzas in two shifts.

“A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness.”

I dug this beauty out of one of the entryway pots at the Senior Center yesterday. Got an invite to take a “half pot” home, which was pretty much impossible to do, since tropical hibiscus really shouldn’t be divided until Spring.

Ordered a grow light for it today.

Finished a pile of mending this week.