The best part of the day was realizing that we didn't have to take down the bird netting after the harvest this year, (since we never put it up)! Our usual late harvests, near the very end of October, necessitates that we put up bird netting a few weeks before harvest to keep the birds from eating the entire crop.
On Tuesday it appeared that thousands of birds, along with our 5-6 resident deer, were all descending on the vineyard, eager to nibble on the remaining clusters that had been dropped on the ground or left on the vines. There was literally, a symphony of bird calls and excitement in the air as all of the critters rejoiced! Even our big grey-tailed squirrels stopped eating our walnuts long enough to chime in.
After the harvest, while Fred did the usual clean-up of the totes and buckets, and started the long process of getting everything put away again for the winter, I started to do the garden clean-up....processing the last of the tomatoes and picking the many bucket loads of apples.
The Fall colors have been spectacular this year, stopping me dead in my tracks as I walk around the property. We've also had lots of visitors this Fall.... friends from college and our childhood years on the East Coast, who have come to spend some time with us here at Cloudrest. What a blessing to share memories and adventures together! We love showing off Portland and Oregon's wine country. It pushes us to get out ourselves and explore all the nooks and crannies.... places like the Columbia Gorge, The Chinese Garden and the Pearl District in Portland, and even Hillsboro's Saturday market, where I discovered the best green beans !!
School has started too...I have two Co-op design students this term, and am also taking on a young high school student as part of an internship program. Two landscape designs are also in the early stages, so it appears that keeping busy won't be a problem.