It's Finally Officially Autumn!

Friday was the Autumn Equinox, so now for six months the days will be shorter than the nights. That's got to make it cooler, right? We did have a cold front right on the equinox, which made temperatures pleasantly cool... for about a day. We also got some rain, but yesterday it got back up to 102, and they're forecasting a similar day today. I don't think it's supposed to be 100 degrees in late September. Nineties maybe, but the 100's should be over by now.

It's got to cool down sometime, right?

Autumn is traditionally a time to celebrate the harvest, but this year's severe drought has reminded me that sometimes harvest time is a tough time. Sometimes the harvest isn't so bountiful, and you wonder how this little bit of food is going to last you the winter.

It's reminded me that it's probably a good thing I don't have to live off the land myself right now.

I wonder if this is why the fall and winter months have a lot of holidays where people get together. Maybe harvest festivals and Yuletide feasts and gift-giving initially served a survival purpose. Maybe this was a time for the community to get together to help those who didn't end up with as much bounty that year.

And it's not like we're totally immune to that today. The severe drought in Texas is devastating Texas agriculture. Farmers are losing their livelihoods, food prices are going up because of it, and all this on top of the ongoing financial crisis which looks to be headed towards a so called "Double Dip Recession".

Yesterday I finally used a bookstore gift card I received as a gift last Yule to buy a copy of The Resilient Gardener by Carol Deppe, author of How to Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties, which I've already written about on this blog. I enjoyed her previous book so much, that when I found out she had written another, one about how to help your garden survive hard times (and in return, have your garden help you), I wanted it very badly. When I saw that the bookstore had one autographed copy left (she must have done a book signing there some time that I hadn't heard about), I decided that would be a good use for my gift card.

I'm having trouble resisting the urge to spend the whole day reading this book from cover to cover, but I have some stuff to do for my PAID job I should do first! But I will post a blog entry about it when I finish.