Activities Appropriate for the Equinox

I didn't get to Solstice Park for Alice Envoldsen's Equinox event yesterday, but it's not like the day passed entirely unnoticed. There was, afterall, the semi-annual hanging of the Equinox Laundry early in the morning:

Followed by a pause to admire the fennel, all flopped over and gone to seed:

 But most of the big activity was today, the first full day of Fall, for today I picked tomatoes, beans, and basil, 

Basil hiding tomatoes, beans, and cucumber with sweet pea and gardenia garnish

 

The means of production, fall edition

and then we spent the entire damned afternoon flirting with death and dismemberment using the pressure canner. One jar, alas, broke in the canner but no harm was done to the rest of the production run which, while modest, fills my Caroline Ingalls heart with joy:

Rounding out the day's festivities was the annual packing up of the mason and leafcutter bee blocks for return to the Rent Mason Bees people. 

I'd say it was neither our best nor our worst year for fostering the next generation of bees. Regardless, I insist it's the native bumblebees that handle the bulk of our pollinating.

Though, on the topic of pollinators, there was this fellow from several months ago:

No idea who this is, but it was impressive.