Sending those rolls on a roll

Autumn is here, with an abundance of golden leaves and, unfortunately, the first chilly nights with temperatures just above freezing.
So, this weekend marked the end of the balcony season. I put the spice plants into smaller containers and removed them inside, where they are now decorating the windowsills. Either they make it through winter, then I can put them back outside next year, or if they don´t, they will at least have prettied up our flat for another while instead of wilting outside. The oleander bushes are on the landing inside in front of our flat, where there´s at least some light from the staircase, and the rest (buxus and cherry laurels) is supposed to be winter-hardy and stays outside.
Talking of plants, did you know magnolia trees bear fruit? I didn´t, so, when I noticed something reddish-pink between the leaves of the big magnolia tree in our park, I thought it might be blooming for the second time this year. Only on closer inspection did the supposed blossoms reveal themselves as fruits. They are actually quite funny-looking, a bit like aliens in pink, and they contain bright red seeds which burst out when ripe. From what Wikipedia tells on the subject, it´s extremely rare for Magnolias in our climate to bear fruit, so this had not happened in the last few years. I did, of course, pick up some of the seeds that lay on the grass and am trying to get them to grow into my own little magnolia tree. Maybe there´ll be another green houseguest on my balcony next year.
The cold mornings did require another activity this weekend, namely, taking out my warm clothes for winter. In the process, I happened on the last pair of my all-time-big pants. Holding them up and imagining in three dimensions the posterior that shaped the stretched-out seat on them is a great way of visualizing just how far I have come.
Those pants, thus, remain in storage, if only as a deterrent to gaining again. Five other pants that I had kept last spring in a bigger-than-now size are awaiting to be shipped to Goodwill in a big blue bag, along with one very scratchy sweater that gave me a rash on my neck every time I wore it, but which was still kept "just in case".
The other sweaters did, for the first time in a long while, fit into the shelves in my closet. I may still have to go through them and sort out the ones that are too big, but for now, I´m satisfied to have just one zippered storage box left on top of my closet, and that one holds not clothes but blankets.
Apart from that, I´ve taken advantage of the cold weather to defrost my freezer. While it was warm, I had no way of storing the contents, but yesterday it stayed cold enough that the goods , when wrapped into an insulated bag and put outside, kept cold enough to prevent thawing. The amount of ice that came off the freezer was quite impressive, so I´ll definitely have to do this more often.
The added advantage of being able to take an inventory of what we have in there isn´t something to sneeze on, either. Perhaps I´ll make a list to hang on the outside, laminated, to cross off what I use up. That way I´ll save myself any double purchases (like the two opened bags of leeks that I discovered) and make sure nothing gets spoiled.

Oh, and today- I am officially a full 25 kilos down from my heighest ever weight. The trying on of those too-big pants revealed that a lot of the fat rolls I still had last winter have gone. Never to return, I hope.
And on the ones that are still there, I keep working.


Julia