Though mild temperatures prevailed through October and so far through November, Lopstick has had several hard freezes. This year's garden, including the hardy marigold bushes, are kaput. Except for one mysterious plant. I don't recall planting any winter-resistant seed...

As the end of October approached, the woodland creatures' chittering and chattering slowly stopped, and the hallowed things began to peek out from the underworld. Peak underworld peeking is at the stroke of midnight the day of All Hallows' Eve, but I dared not wait tha...

Sometimes, at at dusk, I like to sit on the deck and stare into the forest. If I sit long enough, I will see all manner of crepuscular woodland creatures creeping in the sticks. This evening I even saw a face in the woods. In the twilight, I could barely discern its fe...

With the low a degree below freezing last night, it's time to harvest the rest of the green tomatoes and... pull the mystery potatoes and onions out of the ground! (It's a mystery whether they disappeared or popped out new edibles.) We shall see...

New potatoes and onio...

In anticipation of a freeze, I harvested all the medium to large tomatoes in my garden. The small (very green unripe) ones I left in case the sun comes back out this fall. And now I have a gob of mostly green globes to place on every windowsill in my trailer...

The tallest of my marigolds are blooming, and the new record is 50 inches (we're backwoods and use backwoods measurement systems)! I didn't know marigolds could get so big and bushy. Perhaps it's something in the compost (my garden is lined).

Yeah, the compost, that has...

After months of doting and watering and waiting... my first sunflower of the year popped!

 Bright and petite (for a sunflower) and beautiful.

Meanwhile, my marigolds are as big and bushy as ever, and some are saying hello...

 With many more buds to bloom for the rest of...

While taking my daily walk yesterday, a neighbor called out, "Do you like tomatoes?" I turned to see a man with an open toolbox in his yard, fixing the skirt of his mobile home. I stopped and said, "Yes, I love them!" He said, "Stay right there." I watched him run to h...

I was out doing my daily walk last week, and I noticed my neighbor's trailer was gone. As in there's nothing left in the yard but some bushes and an empty dirt patch. I guess that's sometimes what happens in the fall, things just get pulled up by their roots and POOF t...

Today I took a walk to the former site of the tannery bordering my trailer park. The buildings are still there, but the area is fenced off, and the dumping field is now overgrown with thick, mutated vegetation.

I took a couple photos through the chain-link fence.

Not all...