The weather is alternating between cool, bright sunshine and gloomy drizzles. If the New Year marks the first toddling steps of a baby new year, early fall is the time of its mid-life crisis. One day may be kicking up its heels like a young man rejoicing in the strength of his springtime, then the next may groan along like a weekend warrior who has overdone it again. The shrinking march of the sun should be ample warning that the year is past its summer prime as should the steady surrender of the trees to their winter garb of bare twigs, but the weather still wants its youthful flings before winter's chill finally quiets the plants into their yearly rest.

Our pink rose near Mom's bedroom window is proudly holding up two beautiful, lush roses. The compost has indeed encouraged the bush to bloom once again despite the chilly drizzles. The nighttime temperatures are dipping into the high 40's, but we have seen only heavy dews sometimes. The threat of frost is still not close enough to worry about tender plants.

The tomatoes are thriving in the cooler weather. One day, I picked two bowls full of tomatoes this week. One tomato plant grew so heavy that it pulled its stake over and is resting on the day lilies beside it, and another plant is leaning precariously. I am definitely going to have to get tomato cages and some more stakes to hold the plants up next year.

I find myself much less eager to finish pruning back the last of the shrubs now that the end of the gardening season is upon us here. Somehow, the surge of new growth in the spring and the months of warm weather ahead made it much more exciting to see new sunlight spreading across shaded areas being opened for new plantings. My thoughts are more towards bidding farewell to the outdoor garden, and the work of shredding dead leaves seems tedious given that they won't nourish new life until several months more have brought spring back to the garden again. Still, it has to be done now to deny the bugs a cozy home over the winter and to reduce the leaves to tiny bits that will better feed the soil microorganisms making compost from the mulch over the beds.

I'm much more attuned to making fall dishes in the kitchen, turning winter squash and sweet potatoes into spicy custards and bright apples into apple crisps. It is a time for recipes fragrant with cinnamon and other sweet spices, a beginning of the winter feasts of the holiday season. Muffins warm the hands on a chilly morning as they warm the heart and stomach, replacing the cooling dishes of the busy summer months. Now is the time to think of heartier dishes, their steaming aromas helping to warm the house instead of wasting air conditioning as in the previous weeks.

The frugality of saving electricity by not unnecessarily heating the house has its proper place in the modern rush of summer to produce, yet seems coldly out of place in the fall. The end of the harvest season in the garden marks a slowing of the outdoor work pace to the few essentials of daily care, the fruits of summer carefully put up to nourish the family during the winter season. However, the pace of modern life rushes on ignoring the weather's cues, the ever bountiful garden of the grocery story produce, freezer case and canned goods sections blurring the seasons into a uniform supply quickly bought already processed into time-saving forms.

The common practice of shipping in produce from around the world has largely eliminated the marked seasons of yearly delights to be savored for the few weeks that they ripened in nearby fields and orchards. The major seasonal special I usually see now is the appearance of eggnog for the winter holidays, a yearly encounter with butterfat disaster to diets and cholesterol levels too beloved to heed the cardiologists for a few surreptitious moments. The enticing coupons are already prominently featured among the more sedately healthy dairy products, flaunting high fat wonders unabashedly next to the insipid low fat versions.

Let us all laugh at the nonsense of substituting more nutmeg for the rich butterfat of the traditional holiday punch bowl, and let us toast our cardiologists in the hopes that our little indulgence won't have to be confessed. After all, we could have gained a little weight from too much fruitcake, and most of us could swear off that easily enough.

I'm making steady progress on the star quilt and the sweater. The front of the sweater is done and the back is almost done. It is a simple pattern where the sleeves are made by casting on stitches on each side of the body once the piece is long enough to reach the armholes, then knitting enough rows to complete the sleeves and chest area in one piece up to the shoulders.

The women's club is considering having some knitting lessons as part of their new fun time activities. Diva night is still going on, but they are branching out into new activities. The club is going to have beaded ornament classes in November and December and then consider knitting classes after that. I suggested the Guideposts Sweater Project as a possible group activity.

I also suggested Warm Up America!, a group which makes comforting afghans and other blankets for donations. I haven't participated in this group, but it asks volunteers to make 7 inch by 9 inch rectangles to be sewn into afghans, and it especially likes it when a group makes the whole afghan itself to donate to a local charity or agency instead of sending in individual blocks. It might be a good way to have fun with a knitting or crocheting class and produce useful blocks to practice different patterns.