Happy time change! Amazing how setting the clock back an hour can mess a person up. It now gets dark by a little after 5 in the afternoon. I arrive home from work, depending on whether the bus is late or on time, between 4:50 and 5:15. I usually let the Dashwoods out to roam the garden until dark. Now the poor chickens will be almost ready for bed by the time I get home. Bookman doesn’t go to work until a couple hours after I do so he is thinking he might let them out in the morning for an hour or so.
The Dashwoods have been snacking on a treat from a friend’s garden these last few days: kalette. It is a newish hybrid, a cross between kale and Brussels sprouts. It gets leaves like kale and a long stalk with small sprouts on it. My friend said it got huge. He loves kale and Brussels sprouts and when he finally cooked some up he was quite disappointed. He said it wasn’t very good at all. So he asked me if the Dashwoods would like it and I said that I was sure they would happily compost it for him. And yes indeed, they like it pretty well. But then they like most things except broccoli, which is baffling. But every time we have offered them broccoli they squeal and run the other way. Go figure.
This last week we had snow on a couple different occasions. We didn’t get a lot and it melted almost right away, but it appears we are in for a good, cold winter this year. I hope. Halloween was the coldest in eleven years so we are off to a good start.
The weather has been so wet and windy though that Bookman and I haven’t had the chance to get all the perennials cut back and a few other end of season garden chores done. We did manage, barely, to get the rain barrels emptied and turned over so that’s something. We still have chard in the garden, it is a wonderfully hardy plant, and carrots. I plan on getting the carrots pulled up this week before they end up freezing in the ground. I tried to dig up some horseradish but quickly discovered that a hand trowel will not do the job. Bookman will have to have a go at it with a big garden fork before the ground freezes. If he doesn’t get the chance, it will have to wait until spring.
Bookman and I had some culture today. We went to a matinee performance of the James Sewell Ballet in collaboration with the Ahn Trio. The Ballet company is a small company based in Minneapolis. The Ahns are sisters playing piano, violin and cello. The trio was on the stage and part of the ballet, moving in and out of the dancing and around the stage. It was a great collaboration, adding both playfulness and heightened emotional moments. Really well done. I have not seen the Sewell Ballet before but would gladly see them again. And the Ahns are amazing. I will be acquiring some of their recordings for sure and would love to see a full concert with them. They are not local though so maybe one day they will come back.
The week ahead appears as though we might get some dry weather and even sunshine. I have almost forgotten what that looks like! But temperatures continue to slip downward with most days at or just above freezing. Winter is just around the corner!
Yes, November is a dark month, so far. I’m thinking about getting some of our old lights replaced with new fixtures so we can have more light inside with safer, lower wattage bulbs.
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Jeanne, good idea! It is astonishing how some new lights can change things. The LED bulbs are really bright too. We finally have some sunshine and of course I am at work and stuck inside.
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The time changes are something of bother for us as well! My boss, some of my team and most of my stakeholders sit out of New York and come every November and then April, I have to reorg my entire calendar and meetings to accommodate, for one hour late/early! So not fun! I hope the Dashwoods are able to get their morning constitutionals and they show a very fine taste in not eating Broccoli! That vegetable makes no sense to me!! I have not head of Ahn Trio before but now I am intrigued. Will look them up!
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cirtnecce, oh that is a bother! The Dashwoods have gotten to spend a little time out and about these last couple of mornings but they do not like it when Bookman lures them back into the run with a treat! broccoli is good! 🙂
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I do not like the time change. I like daylight savings time and I would be fine if we kept it like that all year round. Me and my wife generally change the clocks pm Saturday morning. That seems to lessen the impact.
We have been unseasonably warm here on Long Island. So much so that one can tell something is amiss.
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Brian Joseph, I would be fine to keep it year round too! If the government wants to do something useful they should make that change 🙂 We change our clocks Saturday night before bed too but it still messes me up. The way climate change messes with the weather is so disconcerting. Nothing feels right anymore.
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We did have a cold snap over Halloween weekend but then it went back up the the 70’s for highs. Ugh. I’m ready for some cold weather myself! I bought snow boots last winter after our first snow (I didn’t have any!) and then I never got to use them because it didn’t snow again!
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Laila, wow, you are still really warm! I hope it gets cold and you get to wear your snow boots! 🙂
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Well, the front came through and we’re in the 50’s for highs the rest of the week – yay!
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I don’t like the dark evenings, but I’ve been waking up early since the clocks changed and am hoping it continues for a while! And I’ll have to look out for kalette now! (It must be new, because my computer insists on changing to “palette”, which I’m sure wouldn’t taste as good.)
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Andrew, I hope your early rising happily continues! Kalette is really new and was created in the UK and is just beginning to reach out to other places. My friend was really disappointed with it but the chickens are liking it quite a lot!
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I imagined Dashwoods squealing and running the other way, and I couldn’t stop laughing. I hope the winter would be kind to all of you, Stefanie. 🙂
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Deepika, thank you for your kind wishes! The Dashwoods squealing and running is hilarious and after they calm down they gives us quite a glare!
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Like, they actually make a noise with their refusal? Wow, have you been force-feeding them or something? Nobody can say that they don’t have opinions about a good meal! I hope you can find a way to get them perambulating in the mornings! (While I do love the “extra hour”, and I loathe the dark dark dark mornings before the change, I am not a fan of this shift either. Our shift used to be on a different weekend, but now we match your shift. For some incredibly clever reason, I am sure.)
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buried, oh yes, they make a sort of trilling alarm/startle sound that really does sound like a squeal. Near as I can figure it has something to do with the size and shape of the florets. If we chop it up so it is unrecognizable they have no problem with it, if we give them bigger pieces of the stalk they aren’t bother, but present them with a big part with stalk and florets attached and they get upset. It seems like Bookman letting them out for a bit in the morning is going to work as long as he has some treat to lure them back in the run before he goes to work. Sorry our time change date shift affected yours! I still don’t know why Bush and congress had to go and change it.
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Our dates are first weekends in April (off) and October (on), I think for all states involved, but some states, namely Western Australia and Queensland have opted out.
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Your culture evening out sounds fun! I haven’t been to something like that in a while and I miss it. Stay warm, Stefanie!
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Iliana, it was a last minute, hey let’s go do this and we had a great time. We will do our best to stay warm! Lots of hot drinks and quilts on tap for the weekend 🙂
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I love daylight savings to and would happily have it all year. I’d much much prefer having it dark a little longer in the morning for the light at the end of the day.
I have cooked kalettes a couple of times because I too like kale and Brussels sprouts. They were ok but I think I need to work out the best way of cooking them. I haven’t given up, but they only appear in the shops occasionally. They are fascinating to look at. I’m glad the Dashwoods have taste. Although, not liking broccoli? Hmm.
And I love, love the sound of that show you went to. Dance and music are Mr Gums and my favourite forms of performance. That combination sounds magnificent.
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Urgh time change. My only respite is coming home to Florida for Christmas and having a little more sunlight
That performance seems like it would be really cool!
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Your ballet/music event sounds fantastic. I love things like that! Even though I don’t really understand music or dance (there is more to it I think than I realize), I still enjoy watching and listening. The time change always messes me up, too. Now I go to work in the dark and by the time I finish at the gym after work I walk home in the dark, too. It makes me want to slip into bed right after dinner now. Sometimes I can manage a few pages of my book or maybe a whole row of stitching. Why is that winter seems sort of enervating. So the Dashwoods are literally cooped up now, eh?!
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