Fall colors!

Just when everyone (me included!) is talking about the colors of the foliage, I discover that not all of the hues of Fall are leaves! This morning early, I awoke to the reddest sky I believe I have ever seen. Hopping out of bed, I threw on a pair of jeans and sweatshirt, slipped on my moccasins and grabbed my camera. Just in the five minutes or so that this took, the color had already faded to a greenish brown..not at all camera-pretty! Still, Ezzy, the dog, and I headed to the pier..if the sunrise started pretty, it might just revert back to pretty after a momentary lapse. I was right! After about a ten minute wait, the sun started to rise and wow!..what a difference a few minutes can make! The sky was still dark due to the tremendous cloud coverage but the big, ball of a sun was brilliant! It was quite remarkable to be able to focus strictly on the sun itself without photographing a blob of light! The sky and sun were interesting enough but the dark clouds passing in front of the sun added an extra oomph to the pictures!

Later in the afternoon, the clouds cleared making it enjoyable to be outside! As I meandered the gardens, I noticed more Fall colors! The kumquats were ripe! Oh, joys....let the picking commence. This week will see me on a ladder picking the marble-sized kumquats. Then for the next week, I will be chopping and seeding so I can turn these into marmalade! Last winter, Son and I picked over a hundred pounds and made forty or so quarts of marmalade. Over the year, this was shared with family and friends depleting the stock on the shelves. Time to replenish!

As I turned the corner in the garden, the satsuma trees came into view. The tree was still drippy from the rain causing the bright, orange fruit to glisten in the sunshine! This year, the satsumas are quite large with some being four inches across! I am happy to see the trees doing so well as for the past few years, they have been covered with a black smut. This has disappeared and the trees are healthy once again!

The grapefruit on the other hand, did not do as well this year. The two trees usually will provide us with twenty to thirty bushels of large fruit. This year, however, seems to be an "off" year. It appears that the yield this year will not even be half of that. This could be due to the severe drought that Summer brought with it. I will just be grateful for whatever the tree gives me, though! Most of these will be canned for use later in the year!

I am so thankful that I was able to hike around the gardens but with this came the realization that a lot of work awaits me. For the next week, kumquats, satsumas, and grapefruit will demand my attention! I will be seeing a constant run of oranges and yellows..those Fall hues will soon become a bit redundant! Bring on Winter! I am ready!