Rainy Day, Dream Away

Today brought one of those fall rains that just settles in your bones. While many of the still brightly colored leaves fell to the ground prematurely, they created a blanket sure to provide quite an early morning scene, so long as the sun re-appears as is the forecast.
I had hoped to continue work on our recently acquired hoop house, but a rain soaked ladder is never a good place to be. There was a brief midday reprieve, long enough to clean up the strawberry patch in preparation for winter mulching, but then the rain returned.
Having worked in the landscaping field since 1995, I am all too accustomed to "forced holidays," though I am usually able to find something worthwhile to do outside upon returning home. On this day it was raining too hard, however, and I gave in and took refuge in the house.
Upon drying out, I was able to make some overdue phone calls. Most exciting among these was a call to Stark Bros. Nursery, located in Louisiana, MO, between St. Louis and Hannibal. They have been in business since moving from Kentucky in 1816, and have introduced into production a number of world famous varieties of fruits, including both the red and golden delicious apple. I ordered three varieties of apple trees, two var. of Asian pears, and three var. of grapes. They should arrive mid-November.
There is also garlic that recently arrived from my good friend Nate near Urbana.
And the additional blueberry bushes I purchased last week from Anna Nursery, a local wholesaler of hundreds of varieties of native and rare trees and shrubs for the landscape industry since 1925.
I have a lot of friends in need of a home. I can only hope that there are drier days to come.