Autumn arrives in two days?

 It does not seem that autumn is here when it's 80 degrees outside, but that is what will happen on Monday.

So, that means I need to catch up here.  Stuff that's been happening since my last post.  We celebrated several birthdays, my youngest brother Roy and DIL Julie, both on the same day, plus Neil Wimberley's.  Happy Birthday to all of these wonderful people.  

Julie and Ben on one of our hikes.

Neil, 4th of July parade. 

Roy, with Jim McNeeley, on Seagull Charters.

We also celebrated our 53rd anniversary, although I will admit that we actually didn't do a lot of celebrating.  After 53 years, we don't get too excited about another one.   All those years we've done a lot of things, seen a lot of things, worked hard, played hard, celebrated with family and friends - as they say, "the good, the bad, and the ugly."   Many things we never in our wildest dreams expected to see or live through.  For the last ten years we have wondered if our country and the world will ever be right again.  So now, after 53 years, we wake up each morning just happy to be together to celebrate and enjoy another day.  

We lost Robert Redford, who was one of the good guys.   I've been a fan since I saw the movie, "The Chase" and I don't remember the year, but the movie was in black and white.  Marlon Brando was the star, along with Jane Fonda.  He was a great actor and director and also one of those people who had the chance to really make a change with the Sundance Film Festival and his work on the environment.  The world will miss him, but his work carries on.

Jon's dahlias are blooming like crazy and a new one pops out every now and then.  

My pink petunia won't give up.

The pink is even reflecting in the sky above!

After our last rainfall, which was a wonderful two inches of rain, we had a heavy dew one morning.  It totally weighed down my dill plants.  

I harvested my Honeycrisp apples and they are huge!  I have never grown apples this big and I won't complain.  They will keep in my crispers in the basement fridge all winter.  Some of them are going to be either an apple pie or apple crisp.

Our grapes are almost ripe.  They're sweet, but should get a bit sweeter before I pick them for jelly and some juice.

This is a BIG apple.

A River Runs Through It, the final scene, with Robert Redford narrative. 

"Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world's great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of those rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs". "I am haunted by waters": Norman Maclean

Autumnal equinox 2025 brings fall to the Northern Hemisphere on Sept. 22.   Specifically, 2:19 p.m. pacific time.