Fire danger is moderate.  I needed to resume irrigation to the garden, because some of the vegetables were tending to wilt a bit.  The temperature swings and variations in irrigation really affected my cabbage crop, which I recently harvested.  There were dry leaves interspersed among the good leaves, and the recent rain had settled under the outer leaves, causing a bit of rot on the outside.  But after tedious cleaning, a lot of good cabbage was had.  And there are quite a few aphids on the brassicas now.  Leaves are starting to fall, particularly from the white ash tree.  Beggar's ticks grew tall and have bloomed abundantly in the roadside ditch.  The blackberry vines have plumped up some more blackberries after the rain, so now there is a mix of immature, dried up, moldy, and good blackberries on the vines.  Makes picking a bit of a fussy exercise.  Pears and plums have fallen, grapes are not ripe yet, and apples are in various states, unripe, wormy, fallen, and some quite good.  The lawn is greening up with both grass and weeds.  In the forest, the amount of tall dried vegetation seems to be resulting in lesser growth of new grasses and weeds.  The doe and fawn are making regular visits to the back lawn and gardens.  One of my hens is raising 5 chicks in a pen on the back lawn.  I need to move the pen frequently, as they eat every little green thing.  Nights have been quite cool, and the barn cats have been trying to sneak inside - to be warm, I presume, so I have hooked their heating pads in the barn back up to the timer, so they can be warm at night. Those cats may have done pretty good with the mice and voles, we are not seeing many of those, but there are plenty chipmunks and a few baby rabbits now on the cats' diet.  This was certainly not a good year for yellowjackets.  I think I saw the 3rd one of the summer last week.  But also have had 3 mantises jump on me.  Most years I just see one or two, and find a few oothecas, but this year they jump on me.  The ants seem to be reduced in numbers from what they were, but still I am coming across many.  The little native bees have been plentiful.  Turkey vultures, robins, geese, and bushtits have all been seen in flocks.  I saw a varied thrush this week, and after hearing it scold, realized that it has been around for a few days already.  Usually I don't see those until winter - often after the first snow.  The swallows may have already left, and I don't think we had any bats this year - usually we are host to 1 to 3 bats.  Gas prices have taken a hop - and I'm noticing a lot more motorcycles on the road, and some are being ridden rather recklessly.  The nice weather has probably made this an attractive alternative for commuters.  The creek is still low.