These are E’s “erev birthday” flowers.  Yom Tov cheers!

Dawn of erev Rosh Hashanah.  I started preps not long after.

It’s amazing what you can do with simple basic staples to create a holiday feast.  In addition to the holiday challah by E, local apples, and honey, we have:

Turkey with carrots, red potatoes, and fresh homegrown herbs, brussels sprouts, and pineapple ginger spiced sweet potatoes,

middle eastern-style potato kugel, and sweet-spiced apple noodle kugel with apricot, peach, and sultanas,

and a homemade cherry/ raspberry cobbler for dessert.  L’chaim!

Not bad on a poverty budget!  (I should mention, this will feed us for the next couple of days, I just made it all at once, to be efficient.)  It’s like thanksgiving, only for a better cause, and I’m thankful we are able to celebrate to this extent, despite all our personal and national setbacks.

I wish my family, who are going through their own difficult transitions, a year of finding some peace and solutions in the midst of turmoil.

Outside, it’s pouring, but inside, we have these beautiful festive challot for Rosh Hashanah that E baked this morning.  She’s a challah pro.

It’s free, it maintains sanity, it’s…therapy mowing!  I know, pretty lame, but it’s what I’ve got.  Good excuse for photos and beer.  And it yields dividends–yet more tomatoes!

Finally, here are some imposing rocks, soaring trees, and shimmering water on the edge of autumn at John Bryan State Park.

Next up, we have masses of fall flowers and berries in every hue.

I”ve lost count of how many days I haven’t posted, so I’m making up for it with a rainbow kaleidoscope of colors and textures from yesterday at John Bryan.

The edge of autumn is one of the most mystical times in the forest.  It was wet, quiet, and full of life in grand finale mode.   Most amazing were the bright orange and other fungi lurking around every bend.  There were constellations of starry lavender-pale blue asters, masses of orange and yellow jewelweed, bright blue lobelia, and sprays of yellow flowers everywhere.  We saw (but couldn’t capture) a group of deer just off the path.  The water was deep and sparkling, and leaves were starting to turn and fall.

I’ll post this in several parts.  First up is the fungus show.

Here is a zucchini/walnut/pecan bread I baked.  Erev cheers.  Hope y’all [means all] are doing well.

I haven’t written in days, not that anyone noticed; not much to say.  Your options are: the humdrum existence of a lowly retired person, or the anxieties and disasters of the world at large.  Not much in between.  Anxiety is one of my middle names, so I try to spare my 2.5 readership whenever possible.

Many of us are going through seemingly insurmountable challenges right now, and lots more qualified writers are out there to break it down for us.  I don’t begin to have any answers.

Instead, here’s a tribute to the sad Grand Finale of the Cassini mission, wherein Cassini plunges into my home planet Saturn tomorrow.  https://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/mission/grand-finale/overview/

Go Speed Racer Go.  🙁

Nature has balls–literally!  I’m not alluding to Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, though that takes balls.  I refer to the interesting wild cucumber vine, with its delicate white stars, springy tendrils, and distinctive spiny fruits.  It was draped over the forest path at Indian Mound today.

There were masses of late summer flowers like a last blast of color before fall.

Not to be outdone, there were mushrooms, lichens, mosses, ferns, and a very artistic spider putting on a show.

The river had its own rainbow going on.

My favorite place at the Mound is the deep-green moss-covered natural rock “fortress”.  It’s like a silent, mystical sanctuary.

Some majestic trees…

…and the cabin of dreams.