merry berries

 Before our recent below-freezing cold snap...

new calendula bloom opening up

...my flowers continued to behave irrationally.

mint and euphorbia

Everything, up until a few days ago, was so green and even showing new growth!

butterfly bush

The morning glory vines were covered with new flowers.

Crazy!

We may have lost the green this week...but we still have plenty of red.

Berries, berries everywhere!

Even a few red leaves, too.

It's much too cold for Claudia outside.  We've moved her into the temperature-controlled barn for the week.

In past years, she was always eager to get back outside, no matter how cold it was.  But in her old age, she prefers to snuggle in a warm bed indoors.

Meanwhile, I finally completed a little project that's been a procrastination point this past six weeks.  I bought a skiing fox Christmas ornament.  Cute fox, ugly brown coat.  What a missed opportunity for something cheerful!

I cut off the coat...

...and just freehanded a little knitted project that took less than an hour, start to finish.  I knitted a piece of fabric to roughly match the size of his previous coat.  I decided that I'd rather have a fun blue bathrobe!  A frilly collar peeking out completed the look.

That's more like it!  Now he's ready for Christmas!  :)  

Have a great week!

bobcat habitat

It's that strange time of year when summer and fall overlap.  On one hand, we still have flowers.  Late-season roses are blooming...

...along with the companion morning glories that I planted, that don't quite match up in color but makes the climbing roses look more full.

I'm still pulling tons of flowers from the garden.

Lots of critters still around, like this round-backed millipede...

...and megachile apicalis, this little bee...

...and this spider wasp.  

As the name implies, they hunt spiders and paralyze them with a sting.  They drag them to their burrow and lay an egg on the corpse.  When the egg hatches, the larva has an easy food source.  Spider wasps have a notoriously nasty sting, one of the most painful you can experience from an insect ("electrifying" is the word most often used).  Like with most things, if you leave them alone, they won't bother you.

Lots of creatures and flowers, but more and more signs of fall.  It's apple time...

This year's apples are small but plentiful.  I've already processed about ten pounds and I've barely begun!  There will be a lot of apple pies this winter.  I dice up about 4 pounds of apples, add a bit of sugar/spices, and let them macerate in their juices for three hours.  Then I bag them up and freeze them.  They are ready to pop into a crust whenever the desire hits!

Lots of tomatoes now, too.  I have lost track of how many pounds of sauce and dehydrated tomatoes that I've put away!

Leaves are starting to change, too.

In part, though, it's because it's been SO dry.  We didn't have any rain for three weeks, and 90 degree temperatures.  Leaves were shriveling everywhere.

see all the dead leaves around Claudia?

It's definitely going to impact our fall color here, but at least we've got a bit!  

Our turkey poults are getting so big!  Soon they'll melt into the forest for the winter.

We've got so much activity on our trail cams.  A coyote in the back field!

The fawn and mom pair are still tied at the hip.

We've got a camera down by the big pond, facing a game trail.  So...many...animals!

Yes...that last video is the largest bobcat I've ever seen!  It showed up for a few days in early September but we haven't seen him around for the past week.  So exciting!!!

I'm going to keep an eye out for more activity...and cooler temperatures.  Have a great week!  

(my) space invaders

Although some flowers seem to be prospering despite bone-dry conditions...

...we seem to be sliding inexorably toward fall.  More leaves are being tipped in color...

I'm seeing acorns again!

Fall berries are bright in the shadows.

The deer have stepped up their pre-winter caloric intake, making short work of my cantaloupe.

Although they've been eating the leaves from my massive pumpkin vines...

...they've been leaving the pumpkins alone.  Hooray!

I've been getting a nice ornamental gourd harvest, too!

Butterflies are seeming more frenetic than ever, trying to get the last bit of nutrition before laying eggs.

Reluctantly, I've mostly stopped picking flowers for bouquets.  They might not regenerate in time to set seed, and I want to collect as much seed as possible.  I'm drying flower heads all over my craft room.

A large "harvest" is not a given, because the goldfinches have redoubled their efforts, ripping even premature green seeds from dying flowers.

They are fearless!  Like in some gothic novel, they rise in clouds when disturbed, but wait patiently on nearby trees for the intruder to walk by.  They're back at their serious work in minutes.

I can't have them destroying my entire "crop," so I'm out with the organza bags, covering select flowers and hoping that the goldfinches will be satiated soon.  

I'm keeping an eye on another potential invader...my morning glories are starting to set up seed.

I have to keep a close watch and deadhead most, while allowing one section to ripen.  They're so beautiful that I want to be sure to have more for next year!

Abandoned spiderwebs...

...weedy seeds...

...and delightfully atmospheric fog...

...it's sure starting to feel like fall to me.  

Have a great week!