Sunflowers in the kitchen

Fall break, grandma is here, kittens are coming!

Daughter's fall break is officially underway, my mom is here until Monday, and the kittens are coming Sunday afternoon after being spayed and neutered today.

Life is good.

Choose what you focus on, shape your world view

"We tend to place a lot of emphasis on our circumstances, assuming that what happens to us (or fails to happen) determines how we feel. From this perspective, the small-scale details of how you spend your day aren’t that important, because what matters are the large-scale outcomes, such as whether or not you get a promotion or move to that nicer apartment. According to Gallagher, decades of research contradict this understanding. Our brains instead construct our worldview based on what we pay attention to. If you focus on a cancer diagnosis, you and your life become unhappy and dark, but if you focus instead on an evening martini, you and your life become more pleasant—even though the circumstances in both scenarios are the same. As Gallagher summarizes: “Who you are, what you think, feel, and do, what you love—is the sum of what you focus on.”" from "Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World" by Cal Newport

Bear sightings all around us!

I've been getting reports of bear sightings within a few miles of us last week and last night, so now am wondering if some of the middle of the night barking sessions might be something more than a stray cat or coyote!

Last night's sighting revealed 4 strands of electric fencing surrounding a chicken coop and yard ripped out and bear scat full of corn left behind.

Thinking we need the Maremmas NOW!

Thinking maybe we need to cool it with the composting in the back yard for awhile.

November Hill pollinator gardens, 3

This morning I put everything out into a staging area.

The butterfly weed and pink swamp milkweed were all planted and mulched already, so this is what was left to plant. 

I spent most of the morning putting things on top of the garden beds, trying to look at height and spread and color and texture to see if I could get things nice. I'm sure I'll make some mistakes but I hope there are some happy errors too.

Once I finished that husband brought home a pallet of stepping stones and he moved them into place in the upper bed. I have a path going from the barnyard "stile" through the upper bed and around and out the side into the driveway by the barnyard gate. There's room to put a little bench under the cherry tree once it gets tall enough. 

This bed is so deep I wanted a way to walk into to it for working and to get to the fence in there as well.

I've planted 10 plants. 

Will get back to it tomorrow! I think it's going to be wonderful!