The light has fully changed. Autumn's gilt edge has lent itself to the quality of Sunlight and the last vestiges of Summer clarity has receded for the year. It is easy on the eyes and softens the appearances of even the most troublesome sceneries. Autumn makes even the long-abandoned, dilapidated, and ramshackle farmhouses around here look picturesque.

The air has changed. Even when the temperature climbs, there is a dullness to the heat...an Autumnal dullness and softening that renders heat ineffective. But while it dulls the heat, it crispens the cool. I think Autumn tempers the climate so as to prepare life for the rush of invigorating air that comes with Winter. But that is just my opinion.

I still have two tomato plants living and actually still throwing up a few blossoms.
San Marzano Tomatoes are the best tomatoes I have ever grown. They are considered a 'Paste' Tomato and are slightly smaller than a full-blown Roma, but they are great for slicing and just simply snacking, too. I've had great success with dicing them and rendering a little juice from them. Beautiful.

It is seed collecting time and I always love this time of year. All the different types and the pods and the seed heads and the drying and desiccated bits lying on trays or in jars waiting for final Winter storage. I like brushing through the wispy weeds and snagging the best looking examples or rooting about in the soil looking for fallen seeds. All the different forms are amazing...and year after year I am still amazed.

What else? I am sitting here at work and trying to avoid doing anything. I am thinking about myriad subjects. They are not racing around my mind, but they are gathering, peacefully and in a scattered manner, in my mind like picnic-goers in a park. A broad park like something Olmstead would have designed. (I actually had to give a moment's thought to remembering his name...I need to excercise this brain a little more).

More later.