Fond goodbye to warm weather

Obi-Wan is practicing his Halloween scary cat stare as he poses with our autumn greeters by the front door. Obi-Wan and Bebe join us to say Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving to everyone!

Our autumn greeters have been at the door since the third week of September. There is a distinct chill in the air as daylight settles into darkness a few minutes earlier each day. The pussycats come in at dusk earlier and earlier. And in September, Bebe came eyeball to eyeball with one of the young raccoons that lives in the neighbourhood. It was just past dusk, and the screen door was closed, with the brick up to block the cat port. Our territorial cats keep a close watch through the window to see if any of the nocturnal creatures prowl through their yard in search of food. On this day, Bebe wander over to look outside, only to come face-to-face with a young raccoon on the other side of the screen door curiously looking inside, perhaps wondering how life is for the furry creatures who get to go inside the house.

Bob has been back at Queen’s Park for about a month, making his days long ones: out of the house at dawn and scarcely back before dusk. Our trees are turning colour, and starting to shed their leaves. On Thanksgiving Saturday, the lawn sprinkler maintenance team came over to shut off the sprinklers, and blow out the lines with compressed air. As Bob said, “We know the good weather is starting when they show up to turn the spirinklers on, and the cold weather is set to arrive when they come to turn them off.” Now we have our own shutdown routine to do: cover the air conditioner; turn off the water taps; box up the yard ornaments; take in the many tropical plants that make the back yard such a warm weather delight, and generally close down the Larisa Grove botanical gardens for the long Canadian winter ahead.