Greetings! Thank you for joining me this Saturday, I’m in need of something hot and steamy to drink today as it’s brrr… outside.

I am writing this on Thursday night – the night of the expected frost. Honestly, I don’t know how it will go. All I can say is I’ve prepared the garden to the best of my abilities by covering everything with a heavy duty frost blanket – more heavy than what I used in the spring.

I was going to let my container peppers plants die but at the very last minute, my sentimentality kicked in (darn!) and I moved them into the garage as an effort to overwinter them. Even though it’s not insulated, the garage is still degrees warmer than the outside.

In a way, I felt calm after spending the last week putting things away for the winter. I felt I’m ready to rest like the plants outside and the soil. I felt it will be nice to spend some time with my other hobbies, like crocheting and, perhaps, photography. I am ready to tackle some crochet projects.

In other news, I probably had my second to last harvest this week. My final harvest of 2023 might be the daikon radish, which I hope to give it a few more days (if the frost blanket works). I have grown broccoli raab three times – 2022 spring, 2023 spring, and 2023 fall. I don’t know what it is but I can’t get the bitterness out. I harvested what was left of it yesterday and tried blanching as the internet suggested but it was still bitter as heck.

Let’s just say I will not be growing broccoli raab next year, at least I won’t be growing rapini. I got some sprouting broccoli seeds, maybe that’s different and will actually be sweet. I should’ve added that to my Lesson from the 2023 garden post.

Day after frost update: Even with the utmost protection, the pepper plants didn’t make it through the night. The frost also killed the Basil, snow peas, marigolds, and cosmos. The strawberries are still going strong. Hopefully the last few fruits will ripen soon. The leafy greens – kale and broccoli – survived, too, so did the seedling in the front yard garden. Hopefully those will continue to grow over the winter.

Can you believe next week is Halloween already? Where has the time gone?

After 3 years of hiding at home on Halloween, I’m heading to the office and join in the fun of a favorite past-time (pre-covid) activity – Halloween party. I’m glad costume is not required because I hate dressing up, especially a chilly day. There will be games and food. It will be a day of fun and I’m looking forward to it.

I also have something special planned for Halloween on my other blog – This is Another Archive. This is a blog full of fictions and flash fictions I’ve written in the last decade. It was an effort to move some of the posts from this blog to get some storage back. I have scheduled one post to be posted each day of the year and I don’t think I’ve gain any space back, yet. Maybe the culprit wasn’t the photo prompts.

Anyway, I am shameless plugging I have a special story scheduled for Halloween on my other blog, so do check it out.

#weekendcoffeeshare is hosted by Natalie of Natalie the Explorer. I appreciate you stopping by. Until next we chat. 🙂