Falling

I was on the phone yesterday with my Creative Director from Yahoo! and he was talking about how he feels like he needs to make a concerted effort to get outside and enjoy this time off from work—because soon enough he'll be back in an office. Missing his own backyard.

He made me realize that I haven't been going out and enjoying mine enough the past few weeks, either. And it's certainly undergone some changes since my last post about it.

Mr. Wonderful's lemon-limoncello saplings have grown big enough that he had to move them into larger pots. We're still unclear on where we'll plant them when they become actual trees... Hopefully we'll be living on the vineyard by then!

We planted our autumn garden about six weeks ago and I'm very excited about the carrots. We didn't try growing carrots last year, but we got delicious purple ones from the farm share we bought. Here's hoping ours turn out as good as those ones!

The spinach is one of the first fall garden items I've actually eaten. We had trouble with our spinach crop last year, so I'm delighted that we're having success with it this year. And it was mighty tasty sauteed in olive oil!

Another thing I sauteed and ate: broccoli leaves. Who knew, right? I just read an article (I think in O Magazine) about things you might not think about adding to your diet that are good for you. Broccoli leaves was on the list, so Monday night I hacked off a couple and cooked them with my spinach. Healthy and surprisingly tasty!

The lettuce is a little scraggly, but we got some decent heads last year, so I think they'll fill out as the season continues. I think we planted about 10 of them, so we may be up to our ears in heads soon!

Although our artichoke plant flowered, died and then became so infested with aphids we had to hack it to bits, it appears to be making a comeback. I'm hopeful we get some good artichokes like we did last year. They're so cute when they're babies!

Over the summer, we must have had 8 or 9 tomato plants growing...until they got moldy and stopped producing. But in another part of the yard, this little rogue tomato popped up and it's still producing yummy tomatoes! We're now planning to move our tomato plants to this part of the yard next summer. I think it's the sweet spot!

Our apricot tree didn't fruit this year, which was extremely sad. But it looks darn pretty with all those yellow leaves on it.

Most of the leaves have fallen off the grape vines, but this little guy is still producing new stuff. I look forward to one day gazing out over rows and rows of these puppies in my backyard...

My picture doesn't do justice to the fig tree. Its leaves are bright yellow and look so pretty against the redwood fence. The squirrels stole most of our figs this year, but I did pick some early in the summer and ate them with crumbled blue cheese and honey. Doesn't get better than that.

My Creative Director was right about getting outside. After my little autumn photo shoot, I felt more centered. It's amazing what a little greenery does to the soul.