Fata Morgana

I love the colors of autumn the photo here is terrible because I took it and well there is Jupiter completely at ease on my pristine table but she is a kitten and she has the manners of a kitten but she keeps Summer's End free of flies (sky raisins) and wee mice she earns her keep you can see a corner of my kitchen garden out that window the garden will not give up not even now in the smack doodle center of gooey September yesterday I made jam from eleven cups of crushed strawberries that I grew on my deck all summer then hulled and froze because strawberry season is short but lo! and behold! the little buggers are still growing! I cooked the first batch of jam with half a vanilla bean and I cooked the second batch with a healthy pinch of fresh cracked black pepper aren't they gorgeous jewels? and tasty

gardening and canning is not all that is happening I recently decided that I had grown numb to my beautiful brain the flat affect that comes with being over medicated for too long when the Johnny Cash Psychiatrist was still my doc I'd go off my Tegretol on a regular basis the caveat being that I had to see him once a month instead of every three months while I was on the lowered dose a good system for everyone DOGNURSE freaks out when I mess with my doses of anything she has intimated that I am too smart for my own good and should never NEVER mess with my meds without telling her but I can't tell her I can't tell her anything I don't trust her but I told my son so yes my person knows and I have already this past few months weaned myself off most of the benzos DN had me on and and my new family physician Doctor Jack [call me Jack] Jackson is now prescribing my Tegretol and my Trazodone so DOGNURSE won't be able to track what I'm taking by calling the pharmacy all of this is good I'm sleeping I'm dreaming I'm finally once again after almost a year orgasmic I'm writing and reading and I WENT HORSEBACK RIDING with the baker a couple days ago even my son told me to stop acting goofy and I reminded him that goofy is my default and we were both glad

it is supposed to rain today and thunderstorm tomorrow not a big deal for the PNW but we have gone 80 or 90 days with no measurable rainfall though there was one weird rainless thunderstorm a week or so ago but this morning it is cloudly and windy I have opened all the windows and I'm writing in the kitchen and the wind is whooshing and singing and swirling the air is sharp-edged and sugary and forest smells are pouring in I'm making an experimental sweet potato pie cobbled together from three recipes I melted brown sugar on the crust and used cream in place of condensed milk and I used Chinese five spice in place of allspice but I tasted the filling and it tastes delicious I baked the garnet yams last night and early this morning I squoze them through my magic Foley Food Mill the greatest piece of kitchen equipment I own it is seriously built to last I even made my son's baby food with it back in the olden days

i'm reading the novel When The English Fall by David Williams it's a great story (basically an Amish village does really well when an electromagnet pulse takes out the United States) but it is not well written and Williams' dialogue is off his ear is off because his attempted use of Deitsch sounds either like Yiddish or Yoda (for instance on page 61 Busy morning, it has been still it's a quick read I started it last night and I'm over halfway through

my son will be here in two weeks with apples and I'm going to make and can apple butter and applesauce and all the horses in the universe will gallop in my head and I will write when I can and when I can

Hello Darklings. I hope you are well. Love from Summer's End.