Fall Color

Yesterday afternoon I walked around the garden and took some pictures of our fall colors. We have had a fantastic fall this year! The month of October was wonderful, temps in the 60s and 70s for the most part with rain here and there.

blue skies looking from the back corner of the garden

maple tree in front yard next to the road

birdfeeders and water moved to the porch

Mom and Bella sit in the window to watch

the birds during the day

back patio we can't keep clean from the leaves falling

lilacs in full fall color

ginko tree is a beautiful shade of gold

barn at the back of the garden

We have had rain since this morning and hopefully it will stay all day. Sure will make pulling weeds a lot easier this weekend. Progress is being slowly made in the clean up but there is still a lot to do. We are trying to move peonies, iris and daylilies that have out grown their spots into the newly cleaned areas. I don't imagine we will have very many more weekends to get this done but then again there is always next year right around the corner.

Real Snow This Time

Please join me in a tour of our winter garden as I shuffle around in Mom's new rubber boots. She found these on clearance at Ross' and they are wonderful. I've got to get me a pair.

Enter Our Winter Wonderland

our garden gate

the magnolia tree looked fabulous

bird cage by back patio

chubby robin waiting for Wild Cat to finish

so he could eat

chubby's friends weren't so confident

they chose to wait higher up

neighbor's barn at edge of our flower garden

butterfly house

basket hanging at back edge of garden

swing with a cold seat

bench with an even colder seat

little pond in garden

birdhouse in the reading corner of the garden

back patio swing

Last Wednesday we got snow, 3 inches of this gorgeous stuff and the roads were horrible. I took a vacation day, stayed home and played. By Wednesday afternoon the main roads were clear and the back roads were starting to slush up. By Thursday afternoon everything was back to normal. It seems like we have had more snow this year than ever before. They said this is our normal only we haven't had normal for the last several years. Here's hoping normal doesn't visit us again any time soon.

Our own state groundhog, Chattanooga Chuck, is predicting no early spring and lots more winter. What a major dud!

Fall is Coming

One of the sure signs of fall coming is tobacco hanging in the barns. I delivered a quilt for one of our kid's I stitched for Monday in Cross Plains and came home on Hwy 25 and Hwy 49.

no fire in this barn

tobacco being fired in these next 3 barns -- I don't smoke and never have but I sure enjoy driving by and taking a whiff

some only show little smoke while others

show a lot of smoke

doesn't matter if there is a little smoke or a lot the smell is wonderful and signals the arrival of fall

Sandy

Clearing Skies

Sunday was a miserable humid day after the rains moved through. I wasn't outside 10 minutes before I was soaked and ready to quit working in the garden. I did manage to get quite a bit done before calling it a day.

white hibiscus still blooming

barn at the back of our flower garden with clear skies after the rain moved through

white hibiscus again -- looks so clean and happy after the rains

looking from the corner of our flower garden the skies starting to clear out for a pretty evening

Sandy

Barns

The county I live in still has a lot of farm land and here are some of the barns, old and new, kept and unkept.

Sandy