Beautiful Saturday

I should have taken a "before" picture. The garden was still full of tomatoes and the remnants of the cantaloupe vines.  The hard freeze we had the other night put an end to the garden.  The Husband was loathe to take out the tomatoes - there were still so, so many tomatoes unripened.  I kept telling him it's the middle of October! His response was: so what?  He has loved having such a rich harvest of tomatoes this year.  But next year - we're planting fewer.  Anyway, after we were done, the garden looked empty and bare.  And in my mind, ready for a rest before our next year's planting.  It's still a pretty view.

I was ready for a break from it anyway, and I'm not even the one doing all the work.  And I'm just going to go ahead and write here.  I'll attempt to put the pictures back in when I'm done, but I doubt it'll look anything at all like a rational person putting together a blog post. I've put them in before writing, and then while writing, the pictures move by themselves, and never where I want them.  I've taken them out and put them in after and the same thing happens. And when I try to actually move them like I used to be able to do, the text disappears.  It's completely discouraging that Google had to muck things up the way they did.  They're definitely losing me as a blogger.  One of these days.

We had to run out yesterday afternoon, decided to include a quick stop at Hobby Lobby (right there by the bank/credit union).  I loved this display.  Hard for me to actually implement about the worry, but I'm always keenly aware of my blessings so I guess it kind of evens out. 

I'm worried, though, about the continued rise of dangvirus cases here in our state.  It just doesn't seem to end.  There are so many and more people dying every single day.  Makes me leery of going out, even though we are so careful.  I keep thinking, though, that we still have to live our lives.  Though the number of places we go out to and the number of times we go out has definitely shrunk in the last 7 months. 

We had some painting done.  I was going to do it, but...no.  And it was a bit complicated to actually make connections with the painters.  My phone didn't ring or show any calls/messages or any texts.  Though they said they made them.  But they came.  They completed the job and the exterior door frames look great - ready for the winter and the storms we hope will come (and our drought will abate somewhat).

And today is one of those picture perfect, stunningly beautiful, just the right temperature days that bring a smile to my face and hope to my heart. The colors on our little hillside are still pretty, though nothing like elsewhere in the state. We've talked about going for a fall

color viewing drive but will content ourselves with what we can see when we drive around the valley.

I'm so grateful for things that revive my hope.  That's a bit of a challenge these days.