Bonus Photos

It's true. Fall has finally...um....fallen here. I truly love this season. I love the crispness in the air and the fact that I no longer sweat in odd places like the back of my knees (seriously, why on Earth do we need sweat glands there?!) I love that way the tart tastes of the harvest match the way the cool breeze feels on my skin. I love the color of the turning trees and I'm happy to see the mosquitoes die what I can only hope is a painful death. If it weren't for the fact that Fall = back to work, it really would be the perfect season. But the fact that it means revving myself back up for another school year (fulfilling, yet exhausting) means that it takes me some time to admit that it actually is Fall.

Our first week back to school was very hot and summery which - -when combined with the fact that some wacko didn't put air conditioning into the building when it was constructed - - made me feel as if it was still summer and I was just playing school. But a cold front has moved in and this weekend was spent trying to soak in the last glimpses of our thriving garden. It's really coming to an end. We grow mountains of basil each year and then make lots of pesto and freeze it. There is nothing quite like the fresh taste of basil in the winter to lift your spirits. And so today I put on a long sleeve AND a sweater and cut down the basil plants. It was cathartic, a fitting goodbye to the relaxed summer season, and a satisfying way to plan for the darker, colder weather. We started with this:

And ended up with this:
It's quite a process, but well worth it in the end. We find that a small snack baggie is a good size for a bowl of pasta or to spread on a pizza crust. We fill our food processor (the smallish sized one) with basil leaves, packed in pretty well. Then we drizzle a fairly generous amount of olive oil, dump a handful of pine nuts and a few cloves of garlic and blend. Sorry I can't give more precise amounts, but I don't cook like that. The only ingredient we omit before freezing is the grated cheese...once it's defrosted and ready to eat, we just grate a bunch of fresh cheese on there. Insanely Yum.

Besides dismantling my garden, I spent some time planning out crafts this weekend...well, more like thinking about crafts. I'm fairly behind in my holiday crafting, so I need to get on that. But this weekend I did finish some special scrapbooks and am working on making vinyl covers for smaller albums that will house the photos that didn't make the scrapbook cut. I'm embroidering "bonus photos" on the vinyl before I sew it up because...well, just because.

Oh, for my San Francisco contingency out there (are you reading my blog...if so, why not leave a comment or two to let me know you're alive?), here's something I think you should participate in. Heck, this is such a stupid-easy way to save the planet, we all should do it no matter where we live.