the light is shifting.

The light is shifting. The shadows are different. Rather than beating down on us overhead, the sun is coming in at an angle...letting me know that summer is over. I just breathed a deep sigh...cooler weather makes me feel like I can breathe better.

Seth is taking the SAT this morning. We are talking more and more about colleges, applications, scholarships, essays. It's exciting...and completely overwhelming. We are going to visit a nearby college on Thursday...even though he would love to go to school down south. Really, we just want to see college campuses and get a feel for what he (and I) can expect. (Mostly me, if I'm honest.)

The summer garden is in need of attention. The zucchini is basically composting itself...which is fine.

The tomato plants are gigantic and crazy and wild...with maybe 4 tomatoes on them. Not sure how that works? At a certain point the plants go nuts but stop producing fruit. Interesting.

The pepper plants have TONS of peppers on them. I am wanting to harvest them all, chop them up and turn them into...something. A sauce? A chutney? Not sure yet...I'm thinking it's a good day to peruse some preserving books and come up with something interesting. I'd hate for them to go to waste.

I bought a few cauliflower and cabbage starts yesterday. I am the only one who will eat the cauliflower. I also want to plant some greens of some sort...and garlic...and onions.

Not sure what else...if anything. I'm still at the "let's try this whole winter gardening thing and see how it goes" stage. I'm wishing now that I'd grown some sort of winter squash. Butternut would be good. Next year. I really need to get that garden journal going...maybe I can work on that today, too.

Speaking of a garden journal, I have been itching to be creative lately. Every time I pull out scissors at work I get an urge to cut and paste...collage. I haven't made anything in a long time. I've taken lots of photos...and glued them to notecards. And I love that. Photography is a great form of creativity...especially with limited space. But there's just something about taking little bits of paper that mean nothing and turning them into something interesting that gives me satisfaction.

I have tubs full of collage supplies...origami papers, tapes, fabric scraps, vintage newspapers and books, outdated calendar pages. I tucked them away years ago...and there they've stayed. Maybe it's time to get them out.

First things first, of course...clean up the garden, start some laundry, boil some chicken for tonight's dinner (Super Burritos), dust and run the vacuum...and then maybe I can cut and paste.

I think I see why I haven't been creative in a while...first things first.