shock and awwwwww

 Shocker (for us homebodies)...another busy weekend, setting up at a local toy show.  

Nearly all of our business is online, but when a toy show comes right to your doorstep, it's hard to resist! I have to admit that I am woefully out of the sci-fi loop when it comes to Marvel/DC.  I have no idea who this guy is...

...but I love a good costume!  

Meanwhile, at home...delightfully foggy mornings continue...

...and most days are clear and sunny.

Late-season flowers are popping, and I'm stuffing the house with bouquets.

Copper mug at thrift store, fifty cents!  A perfect Autumn vase.

Of course, this is a major temptation to someone.

The usual fall visitors are out and about...

so much dew!

And evidence of those unseen...

Goldfinches stripping seeds and tossing chaff into a pumpkin leaf

A 4 foot hosta mowed down by bloodthirsty deer

One of my favorites...fall spiders.  You might want to skip the next three pictures if spiders give you the creeps!

I've been looking for crab spiders all summer.  They hide in flower heads and pounce on unsuspecting insects.  He's a masked bandit!

Besides crab spiders, my favorites are really daring jumping spiders.  Here's one chowing down on a small fly...

...and another one giving me the eyeball.  This is a male, pretty evident from his green chelicerae (mouthparts).  Isn't he a beauty?

I'm hoping to get more spider pictures soon.  The heat is going to be breaking soon (hello, September!!!) and it will be more comfortable to move around outside.  Although...the kittens much prefer indoors in all circumstances.

Awwwww!

Have a great week!  

foggy bottoms

These recent cool, foggy mornings don't need to be near Halloween to be enjoyed...but it sure doesn't hurt!  

I love the fog and the rain in autumn.

The nearby horses are calm and patient, waiting out our infrequent storms.

Since we're so close to November, the bright reds have turned to rust, and the yellow leaves are deepening into gold.

Down by the pond, the colors are lovely.

A belted kingfisher scolded me for interrupting his hunt.

In the garden, the goldfinches are still finding seeds.  Their little acrobatics are so fun to watch.

Many days are overcast, but the sun still comes out and makes the colors bright again.

Claudia is still showing up for regular meals...

...but sometimes, she brings her own.

Somehow, after a lackluster summer, the snapdragons are taller and stronger than ever, seemingly unaffected by the ran and the frost.  They are making gorgeous late-season bouquets.

I've been drying seed, trading seed, and cataloguing seed for weeks.  It's satisfying work as the rain beats against the windows and the cats are snoring peacefully in their nearby beds.  I'm looking forward to a season of major organization and planning.  Hopefully this will help to make 2021 a little bit better than its predecessor!

Have a great week!

fit to split

The days are still warm enough for cheerful visitors...

But this might be the most anticipated visitor of all!

After a 6-week dry spell, we have had two short rains.  Not nearly enough, but every little bit helps.  There's no rain in the forecast for the next 10 days, but I'm hoping that these little episodes are enough to put the garden to bed (and not the grave!) over the next couple of weeks.  So far, it's still going strong.

Flowers are still blooming, and I'm still getting my cat escort on my daily trips to the garden.

Things are looking good, but there are definite casualties.  The hot weather has turned our soil to dust over compacted clay, so when we had strong wind last week, some of my beloved taller flowers were downed.  I lost several of my Benary's wine zinnias (5" - 6" flower heads!), and also my beloved 'Mission Giant' marigolds, which look so much like yellow dahlias.  Whole stalks split on the top-heavy plants.

At least I'm going to have big marigold bouquets for a while.

The good news is that I've read that pollinated flowers WILL produce seed.  These marigolds were covered in pollinators, so the large, open flowers are going to be saved and dried.  I'll take a couple of their seeds and attempt to germinate them in a plastic baggie, wrapped in a wet paper towel.  If they germinate, then I can assume that the whole lot is viable.  Hooray!

I'm collecting seeds from my nasturtiums, with their lily pad leaves...

...and it seems that FINALLY, our goldfinches are migrating.  This means that I'll be able to salvage seeds from the rest of my zinnias and cosmos, which is a big relief.

I've noticed, with our heavy dews, that we've got little pockets of webs all over the yard.

These are made by tiny grass spiders, and the drops of dew caught on the webs make them visible.

It's hard to believe that soon, all of the little spiders and their webs, both large and small...

...will be gone for the season!  Although I'm still seeing spiders, butterflies, and bees, I don't think they'll be around for more than another week or so.  Our temperature dipped to 35 degrees last night.  The slow slide into winter is in full swing now!  You can already see it in our house, as our cats are perfect temperature barometers.  Cats lingering in sunbeams...

...or curled up in quilts?  Oh, yeah - I don't have to be a Game of Thrones fan to know that winter is coming.  

But I'll prolong fall as long as possible, with touches of leaves and fall color wherever I can put them.

Have a great week!