Apples, pumpkins and onion seeds

School's back in and there are signs of autumn everywhere. The apples in the yard have started to pink-up nicely. Our tree seems to finally be finding its feet with 20-odd apples, all of a good size. A tiny bit of maggot is evident but we can live with that (some of the trees I've seen this summer have been really bad).

The sunflowers and bees are both given' 'er all day long. Alas, the days are much shorter.

I tested the second patch of hawthorn berries yesterday at lunch and they too are lame-tasting. Much like rose hips--nice enough but not really worth the time to jelly when crab apples abound. So I'm going to scratch them off my foraging list and instead see about bagging some onion seeds.

The school garden nearby has been a roaring success despite limited attention all summer. The pumpkins they have are amazing!

The fall rye I planted out back as a cover crop is starting to come up. I almost "weeded" it (looks like crabgrass) until I noticed the uniform pattern of the "weeds".

We went out for a walk last night and saw a double rainbow (much brighter in person--you can just barely see the second rainbow here).

Tonight I'm going to make apple butter from some of the remaining apples.