Autumnal Surprises and Hopes

The last tree to flower in our area is the Witch Hazel. Most trees flower in the spring, their blooms lost in a sea of glorious color, while the Witch Hazel just sits there, biding it's time. But in November, the Witch Hazel has the last laugh. When the leaves are mostly off all the trees, their early beauty long forgotten, she bursts into full flower. It's startling, really. We have one in the road hedge row and I almost fell off the tractor when I drove by it yesterday. A beautiful, rather wild and unkempt flower. It also has a huge scent... not the sweet perfume of spring, but astringent, and medicinal. Perhaps a scent to get us through the long winter... not to scent our perfumes, but to keep us healthy.



Being the eternal optimists that we are, we're still holding out for a good crop of broccoli. We covered part of it with a large, very light cloth, called 'remay', and taken to calling it our field of dreams


The forecast for next week is for temperatures to be in the 50's. And, if it's sunny too, perhaps we can get the broccoli heads to go from:



to this


Well, we can always hope!