Nov 01, 2020
I had trouble staying asleep last night and so I was laying awake from 5:15AM to 6:30AM when I realized that I had not changed the clocks last night. So that meant that instead of getting an extra hour of sleep, I actually was awake at 4:15AM 😯  I usually am never up before 8AM so I  had a very long day. I did get a few extra to do’s crossed off my list which was good.
I have never before been affected with the time changes but today I felt out of sorts each time I checked the clock. Â I either had extra time or the time was passing too quickly. I was doing some mending when suddenly the sun went behind the hill at 3:50!! It wasn’t long before the sunset and now at 5:10PM it is almost dark. Â I had forgotten how much less daylight there is in winter here as opposed to Mexico.
October went by so quickly that I never posted our calendar photo. Might as well bring in November with an October photo.
A collage of photos from our time in Marrakesh last June. Much happier times.
The first sunset of November taken about 15 minutes ago.
Oct 30, 2020
A little out of sequence but here it is. Our final harvest was October 15th, about eight days before we got that huge ( well it was huge to me ) snow storm. It had to be significant because they put out a snowfall warning.
We picked the last of our green beans. This hanging white one and others are being left to dry so we can used them as seeds next spring. Â Not sure how the deep freeze we just experienced has affected that process.
I couldn’t believe that we had tomato blossoms mid October.
As well as strawberry blossoms.
We did have four small zuchinni growing and left them for another week.. We picked them the night before the snow fell. They really didn’t grow much more but were good in a stir fry.
Looking much emptier. We have not yet had a chance to go back and put the garden to bed. Â Should we turn the soil or just leave it to the spring?
So many tomatoes plus kale, Swiss chard and beets tops.
All of these tomatoes have turned red in the past two weeks.
Not sure if I posted this yet. Sorry if it is a repeat. We do love roasted veggies and I baked these with pesto, as well as a few pieces of fish at the same time.
Definitely yummy.
Does anyone have a tomato soup recipe that incorporates fresh tomatoes?
I have also replied to your comments about winterizing and what we have done. Please check that last post and let me know if we need to do more.
Oct 29, 2020
The last two or three weeks have been about changes. I have documented as many as I remembered to take photos of.
We have sold our wooden arbour. The is the first step in a huge change. It was gone about 10 days ago and we still keep trying to shut the gate leaving and retuning.
This is our water box. The water comes up from water pipes way down below. The water then goes into the house as well as to our irrigation system. The pipes, sprinkler controller and various valves in this box have some insulation but we normally get it all blown out before we head south for the winter. The long thin white pipe bottom left, comes out of the box and is non insulated for only two inches before in goes into the next insulated compartment. It was never a problem as the lines were blown out. This year it is likely to freeze so Colin created an insulated area around those two inches.
This was a big change to get used to. Actually I am still having trouble with  the cold.
I liked the snow in the background with the reflection of that tall tree in the lake.
On of the best changes was to remove screens from some of our windows so that we are not looking through them. Â It has made a huge difference in our views.
In the centre of this shot there is a pole in the middle of the red leaves. Â If you look directly above that tree you will see two birds sitting on a branch.
These two eagles spend a good part of their day up there. When they and the males fly over the lake and often our home it is spectacular. We are seeing more eagles and many more herons in this cooler weather.
We have so many new ducks. Some are are just stopping for a few days but it appears that many are here for the winter. I still need to so more research to find out who is who.
While Colin was taking photos of that wonderful panorama sunset the other day, I was taking a shot of these new to us ducks swimming in the reflection of the sunset.
The last of our tomatoes, ever so slowly turning red.
So nice to see our Mountain Ash change its colours. We can’t figure out why we have so few berries this year. Â Other years there were so many that we had to remove some as the branches were bending to the ground.
Because of the cold, Colin has had to move his inversion table inside. He was going to put it away for the winter but he really does need it, so there it sits, next to the fireplace, between the dining room table and the living room. Can you see him? At this point I have no room for my Christmas tree. Â That is going to take some thought.
Oct 28, 2020
This was taken last night, Tuesday October 27th.
I can’t explain how much it moved me to see these colours. I asked the professional photographer in the family to do his magic. Instead of individual photos Colin created this panorama shot ( this photo was a photoshop of eight images ) and the colours are spot on, it was pinker to the south and in the west a melange of darker colours. This is as good as any Mazatlan sunset that I have seen. Â Only thing is, it is much much warmer to stand outside on the Isla and enjoy the enchantment.
