To the pumpkin patch

On the last weekend before Halloween, it seemed like a very good idea to head to a pumpkin patch.

Nathalia and her baby and I got in the car and traveled about 45 minutes outside Washington, D.C., a region that segues from urban to rural amazingly rapidly. We arrived at the orchard and pumpkin patch, and as soon as we got out of the car and started walking, we realized that we were going to have stunning, idyllic fall weather for our little adventure.



We declined a tractor ride to the pumpkin patch and instead wandered over there through the apple orchards.



We wanted just a handful of apples, and they were easy to find once we got farther into the rows of trees.



And then we found the pumpkin patch!



We took ten million a few photos here. Not surprisingly, I loved the orange pumpkins and blue sky together. I also loved baby girl's pumpkin-themed outfit (and snapping some pictures of mother and daughter).



I held the baby while her mama looked for a pumpkin.

Then we just decided to pick a pumpkin back at the entrance, where there were beautiful piles of all kinds of pumpkins.

And Nathalia found the perfect (and oddly hollow) pumpkin!

We meandered around to see the farm animals (baby was fascinated by the llama!), bought the pumpkin, four apples and some apple cider, and shared a caramel apple before heading home. I already love this memory with my friend and her daughter.

Garden surprises

I'm back from a weekend with my friends and their baby girl, and I am so grateful for the visit—and to finally meet the baby! (More details—and pictures—to come later this week.)

Yesterday I finally returned to my garden plot to clean it out for the year. Most of my plants are done for the season, but my Swiss chard is just starting to ramp up (and oddly so are the poblano peppers). I transplanted my rosemary and sage plants into pots to bring back to the house and left the chard and peppers to see what happens.

Some plots are ready for winter; others are thriving with fall batches of lettuce and chard and broccoli. My favorite sight: a few handfuls of tiny tomatoes, ripening in rainbow fashion, hanging on my neighbor's fence like strings of lights.

Weekend update

Saturday morning seems like a long time ago!

Yesterday my mom came over to help with some house projects. While Josh was tackling his own set of house-related projects, Mom helped me prepare the vegetable garden area for winter and plant some tulip and crocus bulbs for spring. I already can't wait to see them bloom in a few months.

Then we shifted full-speed into painting. (This was the second round of painting - on move-in weekend, Mom and I worked on the kitchen and guest bedroom.) First: the dining room, which we changed from a rich, bright yellow to Butter Up, a more mellow yellow. Mom is both a strong and merry painter, which is a marvelous combination. She makes painting fun, and she makes it look easy. We are so grateful.

In between two quick coats on the dining room walls, we turned our attention to the basement wall I wanted to paint. In hopes of pulling out one particular shade of orange from the basement rug, I had tested samples of four shades of paint on the green wall before deciding on Autumn Haze. Mom did most of the first two coats, and then I topped it off with a third coat today.

Then: back upstairs to finish the dining room. Later, I put away the rest of the boxes and cleared off the table. The dining room is done!






This weekend wasn't just house projects, though. Yesterday Josh and I attended the beautiful wedding of a friend who I've known for almost 15 years (!), and it was so nice to celebrate my friend and her new husband and get a chance to catch up with some of my other friends from high school.

Today continued the streak of stunning fall weather in Minnesota, and we went for a leisurely walk around the neighborhood. Because of how our work schedules overlap, Josh and I are typically solo on our walks with Wish, so I loved today's stroll.

And Tennessee did not manage to upset Ole Miss yesterday, but we're closing out the weekend with what looks to be shaping up to be a good Broncos win. I'm looking forward to the week ahead.

Bright leaves

Being outside today was splendid: warm, sunny, and with brilliant fall colors. I am very glad I was toting my camera on my walks. This year's leaves are especially magnificent.

After work, I took Wish for a long walk around our new neighborhood (during which I spotted another Keeshond out for a stroll!!) and then sat on our porch and finished reading Looking for Alaska. I love this season.

Leaves upon leaves

This afternoon I meandered down to that beloved Shadow Falls trail, which follows a tiny stream over to the actual Shadow Falls above the Mississippi River.

My view when I looked up:

And one of my views when I looked down:

My pace was sure not setting any personal records today, but it was one of my favorite runs in a long time.

A visit to the garden

My mom came over to help us with some yard work last night (read: teach us how to do yard work) and our hydrangea bushes (among other areas around the yard) are now ready for colder weather. We also cleared out the raised bed that will turn into my vegetable garden come spring. (Many, many thanks to Mom!)

All of this reminded me that I needed to spend some time at my original little garden plot, so after work today, I headed over there.

With a couple of frosts on record in St. Paul already, it's not surprising that the garden is fading. I think this flower captured the feeling gracefully.




I collected a few green tomatoes and cleared out a couple of the tomato plants, but I need to go back this weekend to finish cleaning up and transplant some of the herbs into pots to keep at the house.

We've been spending most of our evenings lately unpacking and assembling the rooms in our home, and I hadn't visited the garden in ages, so it was nice take a few leisurely minutes outside today in the sun. Also, the clouds today were magnificent.

I'll miss my little garden plot this winter but am excited for more garden adventures in the yard next year.

Looking up

After a wonderful weekend of volunteering at the Twin Cities Marathon (and feeling wholeheartedly inspired and energized by the community of runners, spectators, volunteers and staff around me), I was back to work today. I went for a walk at lunch, and it was one of those strolls where I was looking up the whole time.

Miles and Laurel has been short on leaf pictures so far this season, but I'll make up lost ground in the days and weeks ahead. It's beautiful around here.

All of a sudden

In Minnesota, the leaves are changing - and this year the fall colors snuck up on me! It seemed like there were hints of yellow and orange around the neighborhood earlier in the month, but all of a sudden, the colors are brilliant.

It's the time of year when you take an extra little break here and there during a run to look up at the sky.

This is my first post of 2014 about fall colors but likely not the last. This may be my favorite time of the year.

Watching the lake

Part of the weekend included a visit to Tin Fish at Lake Calhoun, a patio that I've visited more this year than ever before. When I first visited, halfway through a bike ride on a warm Friday afternoon earlier in the summer, the lines were long and the patio was packed. Lately, with cooler weather, the patio has been much quieter.

When Josh and I were there over the weekend, we sat in one of the bar-height double Adirondack chairs overlooking the water. It was a windy afternoon, and instead of the usual kayakers and paddleboarders, we saw lots of people sailing and zipping around the lake on windsurfing boards. I'm not sure windsurfing is in the cards for me anytime soon, but it was beautiful to watch.

Our view:



I'm hoping I'll be out on this lake at least once more yet this fall for more kayaking. It's a wonderful place.

In between seasons

As the forecast earlier in the week suggested, that cool and rainy weather did arrive. Josh and I went for a walk before work one morning and I saw these pretty raindrops piled on leaves.

It's not the heart of autumn by any means—I haven't started making soups yet and warmer weather will be back in the week ahead—but I have worn a fall jacket and I am making some sort of baked caprese pasta for dinner tonight, which I imagine to be a nod to both the fading season and the upcoming one.

One definitely wonderful aspect of these cooler temperatures: running in them. I'm lacing up my shoes for 10 miles tomorrow morning with Molly, and with the temperature at the start will be hovering around 40 degrees, which is just about my favorite running weather. No time goals for me—I'll be happy when I cross the finish line. I'm excited to start Saturday with one of my favorite local races.

Monday notes

Much like last Monday's post, I'm here to report that Josh and I spent big chunks of Sunday packing and organizing and preparing for our move in a couple of weeks. We get more and more excited about our house the more work we do, and just the simple task of labeling each box with its destination in our future home builds on that feeling. Soon we'll be in our new house!

Other Monday updates:

1) I ran eight miles on Saturday, my longest run in a few months! Molly nudged me to sign up for the 10-mile option of a great local race, and it's this weekend, so I've been slowly bumping up my mileage to prepare. She's running the 20-mile version, so I'll get to run one loop with her before she's on her merry way for 10 more miles.

2) This dog:

3) One year ago this week we were getting ready to get married! I love thinking back to the days leading up to our wedding.

4) Some autumn weather is swooping in later this week. I dug out my sweaters.

5) Chilaquile casserole tonight for dinner using tomatoes from the garden, fresh sweet corn and a farmers market zucchini - a big departure from how I assemble this dish in the colder months!

I'm off to pop outside to see if the clouds have cleared enough to reveal tonight's harvest moon.

Another leaf pile

If today's gusty winds aren't reminder enough, the leaves are on their way out, and it did snow earlier in the week. There will be a cap on 2013's leaf photos.

But it's not happening this week. I forgot how pretty they look all frozen in the morning!

Happy Saturday to you and yours!

November leaves

Everything in Minnesota is happening two weeks later than usual this year because spring arrived late, so there is a weird amount of bright leaves still left on the trees.

But it's snowing tonight - November does average nine inches of snow in the Twin Cities, after all - and that means this could be the last round of leaf pictures!

These photos, by the way, are courtesy of a few miles around the streets of St. Paul. These leaves won't be around too much longer, so I love to get outside when they're still so bright.

Droplets

Today's meteorological conditions were nothing to write home about, except one thing.

It rained overnight, and when I went out for a run at lunch, I was admiring the wet leaves on the ground (because bright leaves that get rained on are particularly beautiful leaves). Then I noticed that in some yards, the rain droplets had just stopped and froze on the leaves - not literally froze, because it wasn't that cold out today, but they just paused. It was amazing. I was really peeved that I didn't bring my camera on my run but just enjoyed the little droplets-on-leaves whenever I noticed them.

Then it got even better. On my walk with Wish after work, hours later, I looked in the grass and noticed that the droplets were still around. How could this be possible!?

Luckily, I had my camera this time.

They are magnificent. I live in my state's capital city, and nothing stirred their little patch of earth all day.