October 1, 2020

 I cannot believe it is October. I have come through my first month back at teaching. It is only now that I feel like my students are comfortable with and know the routine. This now feels like the new normal. Although, when I was driving home out of the small town in which I teach at the end of the day and I saw a school bus with the driver wearing a mask, it still made me shake my head a bit. The new normal.

Apart from how my professional world has been turned on its head, everything else is pretty good. I am very rural, our numbers are extremely low, and life is continuing on without much of a hitch. There is much talk of the second wave. In my own opinion I think a total shut down cannot happen again. It must be specific to certain areas, with a focus on the most vulnerable in our society. My opinion. 

In other news, our fall colours are breathtaking. We have now had some rainy days with a couple more to come and that usually takes away many of the leaves, but they are beautiful at the moment. There is such an exquisite feel to the air. I felt it when I went out tonight after supper to close up the chickens at about 7:15 p.m. It was cool, the grass was damp, there were leaves on the ground, and the light was rapidly fading. The chickens were already "in bed", I just had to close their little door. They know. The seasons have changed. They are also molting and from nine hens we get a massive two eggs a day. It comes with the season.

You may be thinking, dear lord, please don't let her write about tomatoes again, but here it goes. 

I gathered these from the very soggy garden today when I got home from work.

These were already in the house. I don't have a picture, but just assume there are more on the windowsill. 

This is what I made and used up maybe a whole eight tomatoes. This isn't the finished product, I browned some ground beef and added that, and two small cans of tomato paste to thicken it a bit. I served it up with penne and some shredded parmesan cheese. It was simple and tasty.

For someone who reaped maybe two tomatoes last year and not much more the year before, this glut is welcome and makes me happy beyond words. Husband is doing his part by eating a toasted tomato sandwich every day. Last night I made a tomato pie. I should have taken a picture. It was lovely and although a bit sloppy, it tasted delicious. I had never heard of tomato pie before I read Mrs. Moon's blog. Now I suspect I will make it every year, at about this time, when I'm looking for ways to use up these last tomatoes.

Enough of food. Well, actually maybe not. I discovered a series on Netflix called Somebody Feed Phil. Many of you probably know it. I had always seen it listed, but ignored it. I have now watched several episodes, often with my daughter and husband. I am really enjoying it. Phil travels around the world meeting chefs and local people and his enthusiasm toward whatever he is eating just puts a smile on my face. I recommend it!