Weird Fusion

Beautiful day here...warm, indian summer afternoon. Golden light filtering through golden leaves.  The capris and flip flops come back out, briefly. But just this weekend we had a hard frost.  I covered the peppers, but their tops got bitten back anyhow.  The grass is now almost completely brown.  With the help of my mom, who was visiting, I unpotted and stowed the banana trees, the bromeliads, a few others.  I have more tropicals to move inside.  Why do I always put this off?  I know it will frost more and more frequently now until mild days like this are just a memory.  I don't dread the winter, but at this stage of my life, there is something in me that wants to prolong summer--and maybe that is as much a metaphor as anything else.

In the kitchen tonight, I have put together quite an eclectic supper.  I am a firm believer in using up what's on hand and in season, and what was on hand this evening was quite diverse. Tonight's menu includes :
collard greens-- harvested, with permission, from a friend's flower pots at school.  She was growing them outside her office.  I've never been a big eater of collards, though I should be.  I grew up way down south and then spent my early married years in eastern North Carolina where they actually make cornbread and collard sandwiches. 
turnips--cubed and carmelized.  Why don't we eat more turnips (I mean the root part) in the south?  They are a perfectly agreeable vegetable. These grew happily in my friend's pots and now are simmering in one of mine.
Cajun rice and sausage--Had a pound of sausage.  Always have rice, an onion. Peppers, both hot and sweet from the garden. But I lacked the red beans that would have gone well in it.  Still filling and good.