end of august already?

well i'm not going to lament that summer is over (or almost over) because we still have weeks of summer left.  but the goldenrod is blooming in full force and the crickets are chirping away and the sun is at that slightly tilted angle that makes the light look a little bit lazy.  the garden is winding down, but the cherry tomatoes are finally ripening! do i want to say that the colors in the leaves are already changing?  walking out back and along the driveway the early signs of fall are definitely there.  and the wood splitting is going full swing

 

grampa giving joey his first lesson in splitting and stacking

 

 



we had a new furnace installed this summer and we switched from oil to propane.  its a high efficiency forced hot air unit.  it should cost us way less to run, plus no worries about the oil line freezing up in the winter, or ever having to clean up an oil spill. nice!  so this winter we are hoping to not rely on the wood as much as we have been, but we'll still keep a couple cords ready.  once jeff is done splitting this wood (the trees were cut last fall and have been drying) then we will start cutting trees for next winters wood.  we plan on cutting less and i've got my eye on quite a few that are casting early morning shade on my garden, then we'll go further out back and pick up where we left off last year.

this summer ethan turned one and we had a party at his house.  "batman" was the theme and i went a bit crazy with pinterest projects! but it was fun and i love to create

this summer also saw joey turn two and we also relied heavily on pinterest for decoration and activity ideas for his "art" party.

now i'm throwing myself into planning for my daughter julies baby shower.  i've got all my ideas pinned and i'll be shopping tomorrow for all i need to make the decorations.  i'm trying to keep it simple, that's hard for me, but i've already been accepting offers of help--so thats a great improvement for me!


well, i have today all to myself and i want to make the most of it, but i also want to just "be" and enjoy this summer day.  here in maine summer doesn't end until the snow flies!