The days are getting shorter, the nights are getting colder and the fields are full of pumpkins (I had my annual pumpkin pie feast about a week ago). Usually by now, the outside chores are done and I have lots more time to relax and read. But this year it hasn’t quite worked out that way. We devoted a few extra weekends to putting the garden to bed: digging, weeding, deadheading, cleaning, and covering most of the beds with black landscape fabric to discourage weeds from sprouting when the weather warms up. With luck, it’ll make things easier for us in spring.

Once the garden was tucked in for winter, I still had a few garden-related indoor tasks to complete. There were about three dozen plant tags to wash and put away (something else I often ignore to my chagrin come seeding time), the last few tomatoes to turn into sauce and a batch of Serrano peppers to clean and tuck into the freezer.

Now, finally, the garden chores are all done and that means I have a little more time to read. Given that Halloween is approaching, it’s only fitting that my tastes are running, at least in part, to the dark side these days.  Here’s what I’m reading this month:

Beside the fire: Victoria’s Most Haunted by Ian Gibbs

On the Kindle:  A Mind for Murder – The Real Life Files of a Psychic Investigator by Noreen Renier

At the gym: Here’s to Us by Elin Hilderbrand

Books read to date in 2017: 62