All Gone

The red leaves lasted a week

All gone.

Yellow Leaves

Trees with leaves that turn yellow seem to have suffered most from the summer drought.

For a brief pause they are astonishingly beautiful but start to fall almost immediately, pelting cars below them like rain.



This tree held held beautiful sway only a week before the leaves disappeared.

 

Next year may be their year



The First Frost

Don't look to me for mature adult behavior when winter approaches--  at the first sign of frost  I 'm ready to go into kicking and screaming mode.

Eventually I concede that  it's inevitable  and get on with it.

 

The first heavy frost also  signals it's time to finish up the in the garden.

 

The Virginia Creeper  is fading fast but right now it's a joy to behold.

The deck is buttoned up and ready

The China berry vine forces humans to dip low to pass under, but not clipping it means more berries for the birds. 

The roses continue to bloom their little heads off to the last second .

Next, those snow tires will have to be installed, but you have to wait until your nose tingles with that snow-is-coming sensation. 

Solemn heads wag knowingly, telling me that the special gripping effect on the tires will wear off if they are running over warm pavement.

Or is that just a guy thing?

 

Magical Seed

Hippo usually sport a petunia on his back in the summer.

I'm guessing a passing bird dropped a seed spot- on into the well and now Hippo flourishes a sunflower.

Good aim, bird. Sorry you missed out on your afternoon snack. 

Late Bloomers

This is how the garden looked yesterday, when it felt like summer.

Today it's raining hard and it's too soggy to harvest the potato crop. Probably twelve potatoes are patiently waiting but it sounds impressive to call it a crop.
 

The sunflowers and trumpet vine have co existed nicely

 

If I had saved the identifying tags I'd know what this bloom is called. It has performed like a champ all summer long, despite the lack of rain.

 I'm not ready to get into winter mode.

Hang in there a little longer, you little beauties. 

Berries Way out Of Season

Yep, it's a couple of strawberries, although the one on the right isn't what you'd call inviting.

 

The thing is, they are growing in my garden today, this minute and the other strawberry plants are  ripening as well.

 

In our part of the world, strawberry season is in June and this is Labor Day,  in September.

 

I guess the short but satisfying rainfall we had recently confused them.

 

Fine with me, keep growing, guys.You on the right--smarten up.

End of the Season

This is the bounty from one of the potato barrels. Not what you'd call enough to last the winter -- more along the cute side.

A perfect rose graces the old bush that refuses to quit.

 

Trumpet vine continues to flourish

Nasturtiums will cheerfully grow anywhere without making demands.

Rogue sunflower likes it here.

 

The drought was hard on the plants but always a few will struggle though and provide joy to us green-thumbers.

Flowering Roof

The shed was always a sore thumb in the back garden and it deserved better.

in an "aha" monent I planted a trumpet vine a couple of seasons ago,  coaxed it up one side and finally, over the top and across..

Now you've got it, fella. Another season or two and it will be like a large bouquet, with occasional haircuts.

 

Visitor

Mr. Hawk took a good look around my garden before he flew off to   resume his search for passing field mice.

After The Rain

After a long drought a few days of rain have been welcome. The fishpond was getting so low that the fish were considering hiring a dowser to locate a nearby spring to tap into.

How great is that? A wet deck.

A full rain barrel

Poor sunflower couldn't wait and gave up.

The rain had been so discriminating that a block away, gardens might be flooding while my area resembled the Gobi desert, minus the camels.

Right now we're happy.

One Peachy Peach

Well, hello there, you beauties. Two peaches have fought their way to adulthood almost ready for the taste test, well sheltered in their netting cocoon. 

You can see a couple of others that gave up early.

This tree deserves a horticultural medal for braving the obstacles that mother nature and I placed in the way.

I double-task as grade A  furniture and vegetation-shuffling junkie; if furniture or plants and trees don't seem to like their location then they get moved around until we're both satisfied. Okay, so they don't get a vote.

A couple of summers ago I dug the tree in near the back fence but  the ripening fruit was a magnet for passing birds and squirrels so I dug it up and hauled it over near the house where I reasoned  the birds might miss it.

Just to be sure, the netting was added and as far as I can tell, it's there for good. It clings as though it's fighting against quicksand. 

The tree was in the right location but new problems arose; first came the false spring-- a couple of weeks of heat wave and blossoms popping out early and then winter returned and froze the blossoms,

Something like five little peaches decided to go for it and two came to the finish line.
What troopers--stick with me baby and I promise never to move you again.

Can't promise about the crazy weather, though.

My Short Adventure With The Slots

For the first time ever I went to the slots.
Picture this--a vast dark room with flashing lights, everywhere you  look slot machines and virtually everyone in my age group. Like, old.

Walkers, wheel chairs and a variety of expressions-- wistful, grim, excited, the whole schmeer.  

By checking the players on each side of me, I could see that one dollar wouldn't do, so I inserted a five dollar bill in the one cent machine and played. I have no idea what constituted a win but I piled up (sort of) nickels and dimes until I was a dollar ahead.

Good enough.
I punched out to collect my six dollars and was ready to leave. Fifteen minutes had gone by since we entered. It seemed longer.

My companions were not in party-pooper mode and happily continued on in their fashion.

Each put in twenty dollars  and kept playing until they were out of money; Mind you there are "wins" along the way, but stay at it long enough and the money is gone.

 They urged me to lose  play my six dollars and I did until it was all gone and then we left.

It's abundantly clear that I am not of the gambling persuasion. Perhaps in another life I had been a thrifty social worker or, god forbid, a money lender.

Anyway, I'm wired to be a saver.

I guess a trip to Vegas isn't in my future.

Bunny Hop

Bunny has been using my garden to test life outside the burrow. She doesn't seem to mind my presence as long as I move slowly and don't expect her to chat.

This gives a better sense of just how tiny she is

I caught this shot just in time. Later in the evening, Mr. Raccoon climbed the adjoining steel gate on his way to rob the bird feeder and apparently tried grabbing onto the sunflower stalk.

Bad move all round.

High Enders

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There are sentinels overlooking the garden.

 

This kind of raccoon is the best--he's permanently fastened to the tree and doesn't attempt to nosh on my sweet little pond fish.

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Cow lost her ears a few moves back but that doesn't prevent her from admiring the world from her Maple tree.

This is the view I get each day.

As you were, guys.

After the Rain



My elephant garlic is a triumph amongst drought victims in the garden.

We  take our victories where we can

The rain barrel is full--it was either that or my arm had to grow a foot longer to catch what was left from the bottom

Look at this--lovely red tomato hiding shyly under the leaves.

The cone flowers looked pretty good also; standing tall after a satisfying dash of rain.

It was a short but satisfying storm.

Gardens Tours

Garden  tour season is heaven for us junkies.
For one afternoon, instead of peeking over hedges or standing around awkwardly pretending to look for an address, we are invited to soak it all in,  picking up amazing ideas for our own little beauty spots.
This gardener remembered the cardinal rule--plant three of the same thing at a time; the clematis looks lush 

If I could it to do over again, I'd hock the silverware and plant a cedar hedge. Keep it tidy and encourage it to grow towards the sky and you have the most breathtaking  background for your garden

This garden has an English look--both tamed and bordering on blowzy. Perfect.

I have no desire to  own a gazebo but I love them in other people's gardens. Seriously, do you see yourself sitting out there? I expect the town marching band to swing in and present a concert.
Of course  you can always stage  a garden wedding and  fill the space with  a string quartet.  Just saying.

This garden was charming and I was captivated by the clever way they increased the height of the fence.

I  appreciate the generosity of the owners. Most of all I appreciate the amount of weeding they have to do to prepare for the tour. One homeowner told me her husband was up the minute the sun rose and weeded for hours every day so that the garden would be perfect.

If it rains, you have to worry about people churning the plot into a mud pit or worse still, hardly anyone shows up.

Gallant people, all of them.

My New Roomie

My grandson Ben is a twenty-one year old college student whose  serious  health problems sidelined him for a while and when he was recovering he came to stay for a week.

Seven months later he's still here and we both like the arrangement.
It turns out that we get along well and  the house is adapting to two people.
.

The guest bathroom is his and very soon it resembled what I imagine a YMCA change room looks like. I didn't have the stamina to take a "before" shot before  this cart  was resurrected from the basement to hold the small stuff.  Now order is restored and I don't get antsy when a female guest heads for this room.



The basement has turned into a gym



The laundry/sewing room is also a computer room now. My computer area upstairs is sacrosanct.



The hall closet (guest side) is full of sneakers and hoodies and never an extra hanger when you need one



The study closet used to contain office supplies. Now it holds off-season clothing and the office supplies are stacked neatly on shelves shoved into the corner to the right of the door.

The former sewing room is  now Ben's room and the closet is all his.

Before Ben arrived, my house was always tidy and on the sterile side, staged for something but I was never clear what that something was.

Funny thing--this shifting of values and objects evolved naturally and my house has again turned into a home.

Ben's health is good and we're both happy. Eventually he'll move on and he'll leave me with good memories.

In the meantime, if he develops any more hobbies, he will have to utilize the garden shed and it will be up to him to figure out where the contents of that will go.