back in shorts

The weather has warmed up again, as was predicted. High blue skies, warm sunshine, no wind. Some of the trees in town are beginning to turn, not to gold or red but to a dead brown color. Our birch trees are losing their leaves. Ditto the wisteria vines. And there is some species of tree I parked under yesterday that drips a very sticky sap. Dorothy got hit with it but I cleaned her off. It was all over the streets, too, and I brought some of it home on my shoes and tracked it into the house. A mess.

I have three movies from the Flix® waiting for my attention: Volver, The Cooler and For Love of Country. But I'm in the middle of The Fifth Woman by Henning Mankell ~ a Kurt Wallender mystery. Too many choices. I think the book will win; too nice to stay indoors and watch a movie when I could be sitting on the deck reading. I have put it on my Flix® list, too; it was one of the Masterpiece Mystery presentations. Kenneth Branaugh as Kurt. Brilliant casting.

We ordered our firewood for the coming winter. Even though we're not here for most of it, we get enough cold days and nights in late October and November to allow for a few nice fires. A half a cord will last us about 3 years at our rate of burning!