Denver weather

Can you believe this? Today's high 80℉, low 23℉. That's what, a 57° spread.

The next day the spread is much more narrow but that's because the temperature stays so low at and below freezing all day.

Then it creeps back up to more comfortable. But still near freezing at night.

You know what that means. Leaf-litter for my patio garden.

That dulcet sound I hear ... what is that?

Why, it's Sara Brightman again. With Andrea Bocelli again.

Plunk ... plunk ... plinkity-plunk.

Time ... to ... say ... goodbye ...

I knew this moment would come and now it is here.

The chile plants are still blooming profusely even with ripened chiles on them. Those are the most outrageous of all. Several varieties planted in several pots with other things. They took over the whole place. They are the plants that grew upward and outward and thickly to command all the space. They produced the most fruit. And now the temperature will kill them.

The tropical caladiums have maxed out and the cooler weather has already stopped them. Some have sent up a pencil to unfold into a leaf and arrested at that stage for weeks.

The beans got as far as they can go, they too are maxed out. And those were the most entertaining of all. The most difficult to encourage. Those were planted three times. But when they took off they became most splendid of all. Just wonderful how they grow upward as spindly plants claiming space in the air then back and forth between bamboo poles then drape themselves all over the place dramatically as exceedingly long dark beans.

The eggplants that really do look like little eggs have maxed out. I don't understand those things. They taste like nothing. How did they even evolve? I love them as sturdy dark upright plants and I love seeing their bright white fruit. But cooking them? Blah.

The tomato plants are still hanging on. Still blooming, still forming tomatoes, still struggling. They're so unaware, so blind to the catastrophe that's upon them.

The zucchinis plants grew and flowered profusely but never produced a single fruit. And their foliage is fantastic and large while growing out the sides of their pots toward the light. Instead of straight up. Each one escaping their own pot and expanding dramatically and magnificently next to it. Invading the space of the next pot or growing out into the air. They did what I wanted. While I bought zucchinis at the grocery store. Now their foliage will be killed.

Cucumbers grew both upward grabbing onto the railing and hung downward beyond the railing invading the space of my neighbor. Those were the tell along with the tomatoes. Both tasted fantastic. And that means the soil amendments worked for them.

No fertilizer in anything. No pesticides. No pests. Just soil amendments along the lines that worm-casting outfits provide their worms.

We organic farmer types are tight.

We all watch the same videos, claw at the same sources of information, learn the same things, and eventually all reach the same conclusions if not the same approach.

We read the reviews on Amazon for each individual soil amendment and laugh. Reviewers think that each separate amendment is the panacea for their exhausted soil not realizing it's just one of several types of amendments and then rate the product poorly for not performing.

This was fun.

And now it's done.

A long time ago back in high school I saw a news segment about a local woman who was so old that she could no longer keep up with her backyard garden.

She opened the whole yard to her neighborhood children whose abounding energy had no limits but also no direction.

Her yard produced way more fruit and vegetables than she could consume. The children took a lot of it home with them but there was still a lot more left over.

The kids sold the produce on the woman's own porch. The kids relied on her direction. She relied on their energy. These kids loved that woman for being so kind to them, for giving them something productive to do, for teaching them how to garden.

The kids literally saved the woman's life. It's no exaggeration to say the children extended the woman's life.

The segment ended with the woman saying. "I'm tired. I want to quit. I want to stop gardening, but the thing is, there is always something to do."

Even as the garden is closed for the season and the produce is consumed, canned, frozen, put up, and sold. There is always, ALWAYS, ALWAYS preparation for the next garden in process. Seed preparation, plant preparation, ground preparation, branch disposal, leaf raking, compost making, and so on. Endlessly because it's cyclical. And that kept the old woman going well beyond her natural inclination to give up. The children gave her renewed life.

We gardener types view children the same way we view plants. There's always new batches of children.

And omg, they are so f'k'n adorable.

I heard taps on my door.

     "I'm coming."

I'm putting on my pants. More taps at my door.

     "I'm coming."

At length I answer the door. Nobody there. "Hello!"

Three little kids come scrambling back to my door. They had moved on. And they are cute as little BUGS!

A boy who is tallest said he is eleven. Thin as a reed. Apparently a different race from the others. Another boy smaller and younger. A girl the smallest and youngest who had no idea what they were doing.

All three working together selling pre-packaged candy and cookies. The oldest boy is put to work selling so his group can take a trip.

Barry and I did that a few times. I hated every second of it. I was a very poor salesman. It put me off the idea of being a salesman permanently. Not my bag.

And these kids looked like they were having fun.

This was two days ago.

I bought a box of cookies similar to Girl Scout cookies. The same idea.

The box was $8.00 for $1.00 worth of cookies. I could eat them all in one sitting. I gave him $10.00 for his trip and the trio bounced off.

Later that day at the store I bought a bin of the same kind of cookies, four X the amount of cookies for 1/3 the price, to compensate for the cookie shortcoming.

They make a terrible dinner. With milk.

You end up farting all night.

Won't do that again.

I wonder, how did these kids penetrate our impenetrable fortress? Either the ladies let them in, or they live here. I don't see much of that anymore. Too dangerous for children. But I love talking to little kids. That was a rare opportunity for me. I welcomed it. Kids doing great things. Their energy being directed. It's wonderful. The two youngest were just following the oldest. He did all the talking. And he was very good at it too. And the oldest was very young. Just wonderful.

It never occurred to Barry and me to include our two little sisters. That would not have been pleasant. These children are different.