September in the Northeast. While it is probably a temporary thing, we did get a break in the heat and have had some deliciously bright, temperate days. Actually there were a couple of weeks of those days, with one or two big bursts of intense weather in between. I’m waiting for a little rain now to perk up the parched yard.

I opted to get the most recent Covid vaccine yesterday and am sitting here now with a sore arm, feeling ever so slightly nauseous, drinking some ginger tea. Hopefully the feeling will pass by the end of the day. Don’t need any judgement or opinion as to why or why not one should or shouldn’t get one – I’m one of those people that absolutely should, and so I did. So here we are.

Of mention is that during one of those massive cloudburst storms that wreaked havoc in certain localities this month, a friend of mine found herself caught up in a swift and unexpected flash flood. Here is a picture of her car as seen on the local (and possibly national) news:

She shared that she was “rescued by three hunky fireman.” Her fairly new car, which only had about seven thousand miles on it, is totaled. Like many of us at any given time, my friend can sometimes get upset about certain things, so when she was telling me what happened, I could not help but note how absolutely calm she was about the whole ordeal. I actually asked her what drugs she was on, because I might like some of those. Joking/not joking! She has (so far) handled the whole thing really well. It’s a good example of “going with the flow” – figuratively and literally – and also a great lesson in perspective.

Since that day we have not seen more than a sprinkling of rain. For some reason I’ve not been as eager to be foraging much. Occasional forays have been made into the forest, but very few compared to previous years. However, recently I did have a delightful encounter with a massive blanket of enticing, beautiful woodland moss.

There were cool little plants popping out from a bed of tiny leaves like trees on a miniature planet.

And mushrooms –

I couldn’t help it – I had to take off my shoes and walk around barefoot in this mossy bliss, which was such a childishly delightful feeling, that it required also lying down in it in order to experience the full effect.

With the slightly cooled off weather, the occasional cricket or two has found its way into the house. There was one that continued chirping night after night with the intensity of a dying smoke detector. One would think, since I’ve lost so much hearing, that a cricket would not bother me. But this one happened to strike a note right in my range. As a matter of fact, it was the predominant sound being picked up by my hearing aids. But despite searching with a flashlight under furniture where I thought it might be, it could not be located.

My cat-owner peeps all assured me if I had a cat, that cricket would have been dispatched immediately. Having a dog, and one that seems to be losing a bit of his own hearing (although he’s supposed to be helping me here – there’s a conundrum), there clearly wasn’t going to be any serious hunting going on. But finally, on the third night, I saw it on the living room floor. See that little blurry guy taken in the dark?

Rudi the non-hunting dog sniffed at it a few times, causing it to take a few hops. He followed it for a bit, but had no interest in pouncing on it. I decided to use the “humane bug catcher” that I had very much wanted and had received for a Christmas present a number of years ago, planning to scoop it up and set it free. Even though I quickly retrieved it, when I turned around to catch it, the cricket was gone. As an aside, my “humane bug catcher” has been kind of a fail when trying to humanely catch bugs, but that’s a story for another time.

A couple of nights later the cricket was discovered in the SO’s office at the back end of the house. Perhaps it was not the same cricket – if so, it did a bit of traveling. This cricket was definitely worse for wear. I suspect the SO might have been a bit rough with it before I came to its rescue. I took it outside, don’t know if it made it. Quiet nights, once again.

There was also another discovery inside the house. I have a very small Fuchsia plant that was gifted to me over a year ago. Every Fuchsia ever owned has gotten aphids and died, so this one is sort of an enigma. Perhaps it has lasted because it has never been outdoors. It has only produced one or two blooms at a time, so small and insignificant that I’ve never even bothered to transfer it out of the 6″ plastic pot it came in. It sits in the front dining room window. Last week I noticed there was some sort of berry or fruit dangling from it.

After a little research it seems Fuchsias can make berries, which are not toxic, and indeed, people do eat them – even making jam out of them (I guess if you have enough). So I ate it to see what it tasted like. Maybe if there had been a few, there might have been a more significant taste impact. I can say it was just ever-so-slightly sweet, pretty mild actually, and a tad juicy. Learn something new every day!

A less welcome discovery in the house are these tiny little flying gnat things. At first I thought the little dark dots floating past my face were just “floaters” (those vitreous dark spots in your vision that all us “old people” tend to get at one time or another). But it’s not that. My daughter gifted me a pack of brightly colored gnat traps for placement in the affected plants in order to catch the little buggers. While it has been impressive as to the volume of captures, this has not eliminated them. Research says they are “fungus gnats”. Even through there are not any plants with new soil in the house, they somehow have made their way here. I’m going to let the plants dry out a little, douse the soil with hydrogen peroxide and see how that works. Martha Stewart suggests that. Martha should know, right? Learned yet another new thing this season.

Outside on The Urban Porch, things are playing out and winding down. The cherry tomatoes have mostly finished producing, save for a couple still hanging on. I’ve already tossed one hanging Petunia that has now become so leggy and bedraggled that it was depressing to look at. The trees around the house and in the neighborhood are beginning to flush with the beginnings of autumnal color.

The other morning at 7:30 am I stepped out on the porch to find this mess by the front door. It wasn’t there at 6am.

At first it looked like some sort of dog vomit, but on closer inspection it became apparent that it was pieces of Black Walnut husk, most likely left by a squirrel. I looked back on the video doorbell to search for the culprit.

And there it is. Historically, every single spring and summer the squirrels have dug up my porch plants and left peanut shells all over the place. But this year, not one. It’s been the same oddity as few mosquitos and yellow jackets this summer too. No squirrel activity. So this is was an event. I had to wonder why it actually brought the black walnut up onto the porch and in front of the door. In the past they have left peanuts by the front door too. Why the front door? Not sure. Also, it made quick work of the whole procedure. Squirrel arrived with the prize, broke it down to shreds and then left in just over four minutes. That’s pretty impressive.

The oils from the shells immediately stained the porch floor with moldy-looking black spots. Since the porch is in a rather pathetic state anyway, it was not such a big deal, except seeing how it was right in front of the door I figured I would clean it. It required a little bleach to lift the stain out. But I was amused……..

So that’s what’s going on inside, outside and all around in Daeja’s View – trying to soak in and enjoy the last two weeks of summer until the Autumn Equinox arrives.

~*~