It must have been the recent thunderstorm that cleared the smoke from the air and returned the blue sky to our lives that did it. I have emerged from my doldrums like some hibernating creature crawling out of my cave. And at last, have begun to think about outdoor projects again.

I called a young man who lives in my neighborhood to come and help me with a pile of wood, which is bigger than it looks in this photo:

One of my sons was visiting last time this happened and he helped me get that one stacked in no time whatsoever. I cannot figure out why it takes me SO long to do it on my own. All I know is I'm tired of working by myself on big things like this.

And in other developments, I went out in the garden yesterday evening and dug up a potato plant to see how things were going with them. I found these beauties:

They are being popped into a pot of soup today hopefully. Along with a handful of the very few tomatoes that grew on my plants this year. Long hot days of over 100 degrees and dense smoke from fires does not make for a thriving garden. I'm pretty discouraged about the whole thing to tell you the truth. At least there will be potatoes. A generous plant.

I'm 'waking up' from this difficult summer and hoping for a glorious Fall. And I don't think it's too soon to start thinking about it, because yesterday, I spotted these on the front lawn:

When I saw them, I felt like Richard Dreyfuss in Close Encounters.... "This means something."

I certainly hope so.