It's Hallowe'en this week so that means that on Friday the shops and gadgies will be racing to get their spooky shit packed away and their tinselly tat down from the loft.

Hip-hip-hoorahs* for the first BE-er to report Christmas Tree sightings in their neighbourhood, and a glass of sherry* and a mince pie* for every photo posted of said tree in this thread.


*virtual

I will confess that we put up our lights in our back yard yesterday. To be fair, though, we were winterising and it made sense to put them up on what was a relatively nice day. We won't switch them on yet, obviously.

Winterising is a bitch. We were both at it non-stop from sunrise to sunset and we're still only 70% of the way through it. We both slept quite well last night. We were tired (as newts) when we hit the sack.

Did the winterizing as well yesterday and have to admit I looked at the Christmas lights for a long time thinking it would be nice to get them up now while its still nice - couldn't bring myself to put lights up before Halloween though
Those bloody trampolines are a pain in the arse when you are getting rid of all the summer stuff - I must have spent 90 minutes trying to get it all to fit back in the box it came out off

What is it?

I'm glad someone asked that.

I've already taken the cushions off the patio furniture and closed the pool.

What else should I be doing?

Packing away all the summer junk from the garden , I bring in all the patio furniture to the basement some just pack away the cushions , give the lawn a final cut , fog the lawn mower so that it starts again next spring , I prune the trees back a bit but one of the neighbours told me I should be doing that in spring rather than fall (pretty sure the other neighbor told me a couple of years back to do it in the fall rather than the spring )
Finally - made sure the snowblower and skidoo both started so its not too much of a screw around with them when the snow comes .

Pretty much the same here. Brought the kids playhouse/toys/sandpit into the garage for the winter. Mowed the lawn. Cleaned the lawn tractor, not got around to fogging it yet. Have to get the snowblower serviced & the recoil start fixed. That's a job for this week.

We used to winterise the garden by wrapping trees and shrubs in burlap. Haven't bothered for several years and they all seem to still be surviving. Perhaps that's what Souvy is referring to, it getting much colder in Gatineau?

Got to ask. What's fogging the lawn tractor then ? I cut the grass a few weeks ago, took the battery of the tractor and that was it.

Picked up sh*t loads of leaves yesterday as the only time they do a kerb side pick up of leaves was today. Not all the leaves have fallen so will have to do that again. Tempted to just buy a plug and mulching blade and just drive over them but there is a lot !

Pool closed a few weeks ago and cushions in the shed. BBQ moved closer to the back door as that is used couple of times a week over winter anyway.

Not even thought about Christmas lights but in all honesty think that'll be in the next 2-3 weeks.

Fogging the engine just keeps everything nicely lubed up over the winter - Just spray a fogging oil in the air intakes - some people will keep spraying until the engine shuts down I usually just spray until the exhaust gets a bit "smokey" then stick a little bit of fuel stabilizer in the tank

Well you learn something new everyday. I might well try that with JD lawn tractor this year. It almost always starts in the spring, but once or twice it's had troubles.

Cheers.

Still using the patio furniture . . . .kids older so no plastic tat out

Shops I was in last week (Vancouver) already had Christmas decorative items for sale.

It was 19c as I drove down Kingsway today. Winter?!

A christmas tree appeared in Coquitlam Centre back in early September. i took a photo as i was so shocked! I disappeared almost overnight. Maybe someone got their holiday confused!

Trees were going up in The Bay, downtown Vancouver today