It has finally happened. We’ve had a proper freeze. It’s sad, as always, to see another season come to an end. It is, however, oddly comforting to see the completion of a garden year.

All in all it was a good year for vegetables. I had very few bugs and at least kept a sense of humor about the voles, rabbits and deer.

I was so disgusted by my winter squashes last year that I did not plant them this year. I was overrun with the hideous squash bug. They look like something out of Star Wars. Hate them!

I figured I would give the soil a rest from them but will give them a go next year.

I have been busy getting winter rye into the vegetable garden beds. I love how tidy it makes everything. I think it does its best to choke out weeds as well as providing “green” manure for the coming season. One can only hope I get it all in by this next week.

Now that the dahlias have frozen and turned black it is time to lift them for winter storage. Oh, how I covet a root cellar at a time like this.

I put the tubers into peat moss in burlap bags and store in a cool dark place that doesn’t freeze. One year I used a customer’s garage. Much to my dismay and surprise, it was heated and they all dried and shriveled. Oh well! Live and rarely, if ever, learn.

I’m not a big fan of radicchio but grow it anyway. It’s so pretty, especially in sky-blue flower. I noticed several seedlings in a path recently. I may move them into the hoop house and try to like it one more time. Maybe drenched in melted cheese.

So many things have reseeded — nigella, bachelor buttons, cosmos, dill, cilantro and even fava beans. Poor things. They don’t have a chance but I sure admire their effort.

I picked a large perfect celeriac and a bunch of purple-top turnips. I mad a wonderful stew in the crockpot with some elderly chicken. It cooked forever and finally became tender. Older stew birds are incredibly more flavorful than the bland chicken to which we have all become accustomed.

I mentioned in the spring that I purchased some cotton seeds. I grew some fine plants, however the season was too short here. They formed bols but they did not ripen and froze hard the other night. They were lovely in flower, though, and I may try again. I’ll leave them in pots and bring them inside when the nights turn cool next year.

I love how I can start thinking about next year already. It’s a wonderful place — next year. No bugs, varmints, weeds, drought or any of life’s distractions. That’s right, my perfect world.

I have both a rhody and a forsythia blooming right now. What’s up with that? I remember after Hurricane Bob that lilacs and all sorts of spring shrubs bloomed. I guess nature can be equally as confused as humans.

I’m taking a mini-break from politics after last Tuesday’s bloodbath. Honestly, it served the Democrats right. Instead of backing their president and proudly listing the accomplishments of the last few years, they bowed to the pressures of the polls. No wonder lots of folks didn’t bother voting.

A story caught my attention this week. The conservative school board of Gilbert, Ariz. voted to tear out a page in the honors biology textbook. It merely mentioned birth control and abortion to high-schoolers. Volunteers were called in to rip out the offending page.

It made me laugh as I remembered an incident from my high school days. Someone’s mother marked out all the sex scenes in Exodus by Leon Uris before allowing her daughter, our friend, to read the novel.

We promptly pooled our money, bought a copy at the local bookstore and found the forbidden passages. There you have it!