Sea oats, bullied by the grape vine
It’s fall for certain. That sunlight slant. The trees looking as if they’ve been misted with yellow paint. Those squash leaves wearing a funereal shade of pale ocher, as if trying on make-up for a Halloween costume.
The only spot of color are the courageous dahlias, wispy asters, and stubborn cape fuchsia that refuses to shrivel; our only purpose in life now is to feed the Anna’s hummingbirds. (One of them buzzed me as I write this) When the real cold comes, long about November, maybe, the cape fuchsia will vanish into the earth. There may remain above ground a tidy bolt of sea-green leaves hugging the soil. (How cold will it get this coming winter of warming seas and shy rain?)
It was a good summer for tomatoes in my neck of the woods—lots of hot, sunny weather brought them and peppers out in profusion (but please do not ask me about my cucumbers. Sigh.) This, of course, means that we have to figure out what the heck to do with them all…which, thank goodness, we have. The peppers are easy: fresh slivered jalapenos are delicious in grilled cheese sandwiches, and the surplus gets sliced and pickled; bell peppers get nommed on all summer, and poblanos get turned into chicken with poblano cream sauce. They never yield, though, quite as crazily as the tomatoes…but we know how to deal with that. 
Without preamble, here we go.