Books, Chores, Gardens and Lots of Photos!

We have connections with books. At least with some fantastic children's books. The SanSouci Brothers (Author Robert and Illustrator Daniel) are the brothers of Mike, a friend of ours. Both Robert and Daniel are highly honored and awarded in their respective fields. And Daniel has written a series of books about growing up in the East Bay, across from San Francisco as he expands from illustrating to writing as well. The books are based on true events in their boyhood, and they are funny and very enjoyable! The two books above came to us yesterday as gifts, signed to us by the author and illustrator! If you don't have these books, get them! Amazing. Actually, the first book, "As Luck Would Have It" is not available in stores yet, but will be by Christmas so look for it at better book stores! As mentioned in my last post, this is a day of chores. First on my agenda was to fix the gate. The latch gets askew and then the gate doesn't close without great effort. And yesterday that resulted in the dog getting out, J panicking, and a delay as we were setting out on an adventure. So, I went out and fixed it. And this is the simple implement used: Nothing too fancy for me. Then, I tackled the hall closet, where shoes have been flung all summer. Now it looks like this: And all the extras are in the garage on the "mud room" shelves (built by my brother a couple years ago, and a huge help to keeping things organized!) I also took the time to go through the plastic containers of gloves and hats and sorting and discarding and getting organized, because in about a month we'll be needing these things in the mornings! I also spotted a loose hinge, and on a whim, fixed it too! Feeling kind of proud of myself, can't you tell! Today is cool. 55 degrees at 2 p.m. cool: Makes it seem like fall is upon us already. The apples are getting ripe! The fields are becoming golden:

And even some of the shrubs are showing color in a few places. But, the garden is in it's glory (except for all the weeds I've allowed to invade):

Have a great rest of the day!