September Days Grow Shorter

        Finally, today, the night is longer than the day. I used to think that happened at the autumn equinox, but found out a few years ago that it is not exactly the case at our latitude. We lag a few days behind the sun's apparent crossing of the equator.[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equinox]

        As the days get shorter, many flowers start moving on toward their seed stage but there are always a few holdouts that try to extend the season. Most of our Elecampane plants (Inule aulnée in French and Inula helenium in Latin) finished blooming  a couple of weeks ago but we have one still in bloom even though neighbours have stopped blooming and even let their leaves change colours by now.

        Meanwhile, back in the barn, I just managed to clean out the chicken coop and put in fresh bedding so later this evening I will collect our remaining two chickens and move them from the summer coop to the winter location where there is a light on a timer to keep them on a steady schedule for laying eggs.