October's Flight

This October is flying by. During it's flight rain has graced our garden.

Along with the fall rains come the mushrooms. 

They seem to pop up in a myriad of forms and places.

The most exciting of the pop ups to me are the last roses. This yellow rose is on the climber that I moved from a much too shaded spot to beside the new arbor over the side gate. It is rewarding me for my efforts. 

One of our other climbers, 'White Dawn', not only has a few flowers bursting forth it is loaded with these huge hips. 

The real stars of the fall garden are the white anemones. They just keep on blooming. 

As do these tall wild Asters. In the lower right hand corner of the picture you can see the color of the Tiger Sumac trying to get some attention too.

What has been clamoring for attention in your fall garden?

Happy New Year - 2012

On this last day of 2011 the temperatures were still moderate so we took Luna to the big park for a long walk. Along the trail we were surprised to see that a huge tree had fallen, all that is except this side that looked to be a nice big picture frame. I couldn't resist going over to have a picture made. This wan't the only surprise of the day.

When we returned home I went outside to pick up sticks and to see what all was going on in the garden. Here I found some Hellebore buds and,

daffodils peeking out of the ground. 

There are oodles of mushrooms in the mulch. 

The biggest surprise was a dandelion in full bloom. These and all the other plants that are acting like it is spring will get the surprise of their year when this wind brings in the cold weather that is to hit us New Years Day. 

I want to thank everyone for commenting and sticking with me through my drought of blogging.

I hope that 2012 brings you all the best surprises to your garden along with good health and a wealth of blooming happiness.

Miscellaneous Monday

So much is going on in the garden right now I don't hardly know where to start. Today has been a mix of summer weather. Thunderstorms and lightening this morning with the sun playing peek a boo before the next round is supposed to begin again. We got 5/8inch of rain this morning not so bad. The night before there was a worse storm.You can see as you walk down the gravel path that the 3.5inches of rain that came all at once washed the mulch out of the beds into the path.

Even worse was that my poor potting bench is on higher ground than the other side of the garden where the gravel path is and it had mulch piled onto the shelf that is 9 inches above ground. Geez.

I am hoping that the little House wrens don't decide to come out this afternoon. The young are beginning to become impatient awaiting food. They would fair better waiting until after this next storm.

Mom is still feeding as fast as she possibly can.  It won't be long before they are out though. 

I was delighted to get out between storms to see what all was happeningin the garden. Of course I had to pull weeds while the ground was so soft. The wheel barrow is full needless to say. I did find a new blossom in the garden.

My very first Lucifer Crocosmia is blooming. Thank you Randy. What a beauty it is.

Luna often comes to where I am photographing wondering what it is that grabs my attention. It seems she knows when something is special.

Not that she is nosey or anything.

She often grins like she knows she is in the way.

"Oh no Mom. I don't want to be in the way. I just want to help". 

Back to flowers, I was sort of distracted. The daylily that I have named FIL (father-in-law)  is blooming . 

It was interesting to find the wild strawberries ripe. They dot the lawn.

It doesn't take long for a critter to find them. 

Mushrooms are loving this wet weather.

All sorts of them are popping up in the mulch. 

Sorry about this long winded post. It's just that I got tired of sloshing around in the garden and thought I would come in to visit awhile. Have a great week.



A Spring Walk

We took Luna to the park today for a walk. It was warm but overcast. They are predicting rain every day lately but nothing has been in the gauge to measure as yet. At the beginning of the trail we were walking is a creek. It had a Great Blue Heron hunting along its edge. The river is up so the creek is high. I suppose there are more fish to lure the Great Blue Heron into less heron-like territory. He flew away when we approached. Way up the hill on top of a broken off tree.

Yes, that is it on top of the tree acting like a wood duck. The Wood Ducks are back trying to pick out the perfect nest hole. They fuss so when you walk near their territories.

The forest floor is alive again. It is such fun to see. The tiny ferns that carpet the forest floor have sprouted as the Trillium is blooming.

Wood Anemones are blooming up a storm. Not a great picture. I have broken my new camera and I can't

seem to get my old camera working properly. The Blood Root is blooming too. I just love this delicate plant. I have a double that grows in our garden but it isn't out of the ground yet. Hmmmmm If you would like to see a really good picture of blood root and read more about it you can go over to Marvin's blog. He has a great post about it.

I am not real good with wildflowers. I learn them one year and forget over winter what everything is. Like this sweet little pinky-violet flower. There is lots of it blooming but I don't know what it is.

As we head back up the hill to the truck I thought you might like to see these natural steps. The tree to the right has roots sticking up just at the right heigt for steps.
It is such a pleasure to walk the woods this time of year. You never know what you will come upon.