Four Part Harmony

Summer’s officially gone now, but truth be told it seems like we’ve been transitioning into fall mode for a while now. Nicki’s fall soccer league has started, and I’m playing fall softball. There’s been plenty of work to be done in the garden too. The weather’s been cooling off slightly (the furnace even came on the other morning), but that suits me just fine.

Here’s a photo from one of Nicki’s first soccer games. Anna and Milo and I went out to watch, and Anna ended up using Milo’s onesie as a helmet/hat of sorts.

We’re still getting a ton of tomatoes, which is what’s been keeping us busiest in the garden. The other day though, as it was looking like a few days of cool rainy weather was about to set in, we brought in our harvest of paprika peppers. My parents turned us on a few years ago to the delicacy that is fresh paprika (food of the gods, trust me), and so we’ve been growing them from seed for the past few years. This year we seem to have brought in quite a few, so hopefully they dry up nicely.

Nicki and Anna and Milo went for a hike in Tryon Creek State Park to celebrate the first day of fall. I was stuck at work, and missed out, but it sounded like fun. Anna ran the trails, and collected leaves. You can also kind of see her new haircut in this photo. We took her for a haircut last weekend, and she was set on a “short” haircut. I think she really likes how it turned out, and as a bonus, I don’t have to pull snarls out of her hair after bathtime for at least a few weeks or so.

Here’s the beatiful fall table setting that Nicki and Anna made for our fall celebration dinner. The used the fall treasures they found on their hike. The apple candle holders were really great, we used them for days but the fruit flies found them pretty quickly.

Nicki and Anna made these ink & leaf drawings/paintings (mixed media…hard to classify). Nicki says she used ink and then blew it out into lines with a straw. Anna helped with the crushing and gluing of the leaves.

A closer view. They’re pretty neat. A couple of them are hanging in our front window now.

Here’s a pretty fall-y thing too. We went and picked a bunch of apples and pears a few weeks back, and have been eating a lot of both. Nicki made this awesome pear-rosemary dessert called a clafouti. It’s a fruit dessert baked with a custard, and this one was really good. Not sure where she got the recipe, but I’m sure she could tell you if you’re interested.

And finally, here’s a couple happy Milo photos, hopefully to brighten up your day.

See you soon, so long for now.