Yesterday was perfect, started off with 45F and the temp went up to low 70's by afternoon with drier air. Only 44 this morning with mid 70's expected and we could be in the upper 30's Thursday morning. What a temperature difference from last week! Margaret has the first frost award

Signet, for the pumpkin seeds I scoop them out of the pumpkin and take off as much of the stringy stuff as I can. Rinse the seeds and spread in a single layer on a cookie sheet. Sprinkle with salt to your liking. Bake 350 degrees 20 - 30 mins, stirring them a little about half way, bake til toasted light golden and dry. They can have a bit of a chewy, maybe stringy texture. I think it depends on the pumpkin.

I peeked at the zuc plants yesterday and boy did I get behind on picking, lots of monsters out there. The plants liked all that heat we had. Was going to reply in tmail with the cookie recipe but thought others might have the same problem and be looking for something else to do with them.

Lemon Zucchini Cookies

2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg beaten
1 tsp. + grated lemon peel
1 1/2 TBSP. lemon juice
1 cup shredded unpeeled zucchini, (no seeds).
1 cup chopped nuts (optional)

Set aside the lemon juice and extra lemon peel. Cream butter and sugar, add egg. Mix in flour, baking powder, salt, 1 tsp lemon peel, zucchini and nuts. Drop by spoonful onto cookie sheets, bake 350 degrees 15 - 20 mins until lightly browned, cool on racks, drizzle or spread (I tend to make the frosting a bit thicker than Mom did so it doesn't run off) with frosting while warm.

Frosting - mix 1 cup of confectionery sugar and 1 1/2 TBSP lemon juice, plus a little lemon peel.

Hummingbird moths are so cool!

quietyard said:.20 of rain today. Others parts of town were hit with much heavier rain and lots of hail.

on that hail

They are calling for a high of 67F. That is very hard to believe. I think yesterday it probably got up to 75F. We are always hotter than the official forecast. There had been a 50% chance of a trace of rain today but that went away.

Lots of frost again last night, I guess fall is here for sure, only 37f now, but it's going to be a nice sunny day, fairly warm at 71f, no wind so far.

Warm today but much less humidity , so a decent day to dig my hostas out of a daylily garden and replant elsewhere . I need the space left to plant other daylilies .

Sally , I am afraid I would rather have our real hummingbirds than the hummingbird moth. I destroy any hornworms I see in my gardens as they don't just eat tomato leaves . They are very destructive and are voracious eating machines . In one day alone this summer , I found 60 hornworms of varying sizes on my tomato plants. If they only ate the leaves I might consider leaving them but they eat the tomatoes too . My chickens made short order of them thankfully.

Char. thanks for the recipe for the zucchini cookies . Gonna give them a try this weekend . they sound delicious 1

Signet,
Only one year did I have a great amount of hornworms and I killed them all. Now I may have one once in a while. That's why I can afford to let them go. I haven't had one in years so this came from a neighbor's plant apparently. Funny, I accidentally dug it up far from any tomato plant.

I'll bet your chickens were in Heaven!!!

signet said:Warm today but much less humidity , so a decent day to dig my hostas out of a daylily garden and replant elsewhere . I need the space left to plant other daylilies .

Sally , I am afraid I would rather have our real hummingbirds than the hummingbird moth. I destroy any hornworms I see in my gardens as they don't just eat tomato leaves . They are very destructive and are voracious eating machines . In one day alone this summer , I found 60 hornworms of varying sizes on my tomato plants. If they only ate the leaves I might consider leaving them but they eat the tomatoes too . My chickens made short order of them thankfully.

Char. thanks for the recipe for the zucchini cookies . Gonna give them a try this weekend . they sound delicious 1

Signet I must have killed over 70 of those Horn Worms last year. Yes, they eat other things. They strip my Cape Honeysuckle bushes and my tree type morning glories. Do not like them.

After our 44 degree morning it warmed up to 84 by noon. Chance of showers and t- showers by noon tomorrow so will be making a dash out in the morning to get a few last minute things planted. Then I need to clean the pot shed so we can move it, finished digging all the 2015 discard sdlgs today that were in the way.

Hope you like the cookies Signet

Linda, hornworms do not eat my Cape honeysuckle. It could use something to keep it under control.

They are calling for a high of 77F. It was 50F a little before 6:30AM. It is supposed to get hot this weekend.

You are fortunate Kelli! At least this year I have had under 10 show up so far.

They are calling for a high of 84F.

Beautiful sunny weather yesterday, high of 71, going to be about the same today.

Today feels cooler so maybe more Fall like weather is upon us.

However I have been thrilled with the summer veggie garden this year. I really have had enough produce to open a farm stand from here on my mini farm!!



And since it is Fall, my fancy hyper tendril purple flowered peas are now producing. Some of the pods are even purple.

First frost of the season this morning here, the temperature dropped to 36.5F (2.5C) as the sun came up.

Great harvest, Rita.

We had 42F this morning, sunny and cool all day. Think it made it to 70 degrees. Tonight we have frost warnings for areas just north of me. Spent the day cleaning house and picking winter squash which are now under cover. Still need to get the houseplants in, at least until this cold snap is over.

Those peas look so good Rita! Love the purple pods. My peas were ready to pick right during peak bloom when we had all the hot weather and everything was bone dry. They weren't very good so I pulled the plants, pods and all and fed them to the younger chickens. Never laughed so hard...they couldn't figure out how to get into the pods, but walking on them made them explode and the peas would fly out. Chickens were zooming all over trying to catch the shooting peas.

sooby said:First frost of the season this morning here, the temperature dropped to 36.5F (2.5C) as the sun came up.

Oh my, can't imagine frost already!!

Kelli said:Great harvest, Rita.

This has been an excellent year for my vegetable garden.

Char said:We had 42F this morning, sunny and cool all day. Think it made it to 70 degrees. Tonight we have frost warnings for areas just north of me. Spent the day cleaning house and picking winter squash which are now under cover. Still need to get the houseplants in, at least until this cold snap is over.

Those peas look so good Rita! Love the purple pods. My peas were ready to pick right during peak bloom when we had all the hot weather and everything was bone dry. They weren't very good so I pulled the plants, pods and all and fed them to the younger chickens. Never laughed so hard...they couldn't figure out how to get into the pods, but walking on them made them explode and the peas would fly out. Chickens were zooming all over trying to catch the shooting peas.

That is sad that your peas got zapped by the heat spell but I am sure your chickens were really happy.

I had to plant my peas back on July in order to get them ready for fall. And then when we had all that truly excessively sweltering hot weather a lot in August I was really worried about my peas making it. I watered two twice a day on those days and as you can see from the picture the peas came thru fine.

September 13, just before sunset, a cloud shields the sun and curtains of rain frame the view;



A few minutes later, as the sun sets;



40 degrees tonight, 66 degrees tomorrow. Chances of rain? About the same as the chances of my new seedling (named GRITS, for the readers of The Porch Swing thread) to win the Stout.

Charley