Falling into Winter......

The red twig dogwood does have its leaves changing colors. I had forgotten that they do turn red.  My burning bush has not started to change as it is the one that turns completely red.

Mixing this small zinnia in with the marigolds is a winner look. I think when I tried it last year I was just experimenting but this summer I went with it again. Until we have a hard freeze these will be blooming all fall.

I have decided to start putting out the wild bird seed again.  The birds can’t mess with my neighbor’s vegetable garden because it has been cleared. While trying to find the seed and  not finding any, I looked out to see one lone goldfinch enjoying some seed. This is the first year where I noticed how scruffy they become in the fall.

I will find my wild birdseed as I know it is on the other side of my Tundra truck. I just couldn’t get to the side unless I opened the garage door.  It was late evening and cold so I just didn’t open the door. I can do that this afternoon. I am thinking our fall weather is being cut short with all the cold, rain, and wind. I am hoping it flips back to more normal fall weather as I have a lot to things that I need to get done.  I do see we have normal temperatures Monday and Tuesday but then we go back to cold air.

I have taken a lot of shots of my miniature roses but the begonia is looking great right now.  I don’t know that it should let it get so cold but I do know I can yank it inside in an instant when it drops to dangerous cold. I will grow it inside this winter so I don’t want it to die before I bring it in.

I am using the few blooms still intact as an excuse not to clear them.  I could pick a bouquet and then clear them but I like having to put it off for now.  We are foggy and cold this morning but I do think we will warm up a little. We are suppose to be in the 70s tomorrow so some warming should happen today.

I hope all are doing well out there.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Saturday......Stuff.

One of our richer neighbors to the west has a large pond.  Yesterday as we drove by the area the lake was filled with Canadian geese. The pond is moss covered and as the wind blows so goes the moss to the side of the lake.  A crane stops in often and a mallard duck and partner are there sometimes.

The sunflowers are taking on a sculptural form that reminds me of a famous sculpture of skinny people standing on a platform looking down.  The transplanted peony is yellow now and the new white mum looks healthy.  You can’t see the dozen of globe allium bulbs planted ready for spring. I have a few new transplants of dallies that I am looking forward to see next spring. They are small now but they will be be blooming large next year too.

The old sunflowers will have to be removed but on a good day when my body is strong and rested. Their root structure is large and has to be dug out of the ground.  The root system is why they stay vertical through of all the wind storms.

The gourds have a great sculptural form also.  I may have to deliberate plant some variety of them next year just for the fun of it.

It is a bookstore day.  Barney sleeps thorough the morning anyway so we don’t have to worry about us being gone. He has really slowed down a lot the past few months.  His eyesight is hindering most things he does but he does lean on his sense of smell to know where he is.  We didn’t bookstore last week as his visit to the vet set him back physically and we needed to keep an eye on him.

Thank you for stopping by today.

Friday and Fall........

My newer mum is showing off its white flowers with perfectly lined small petals. It will grow and be larger next year once it get established in my cottage garden.

I am not going to clear the zinnias as long as there is some flash of color showing. A good freeze will sure give me the sign to take them down.  I am going to start removing some of the tomato plants which have no tomatoes left on them. I remember from last year that the zinnias filled up half of my truck.  If I add sunflowers on that it will be a full load.

I haven’t shut down the vine for these yet as there are still about six or more small ones that look just like these.  For a volunteer vine I have enjoyed seeing them grow. I wish they would have been pumpkins but that didn’t develop.

We saw a lot of colored leaves on tress on our way to the old place this morning. The sumac and maples seem to be the first to change. We had another sever rain storm up at the old place so I had to pick up sticks in the yard.

The town clean up is tomorrow so I did get my old dishwasher placed out on the curb.  I also took a metal architecture draft desk out to the curb as I decided not to move it. It was good to get rid of those two thins.  Also a neighbor lady came to pick up a dresser of drawers from out place, getting that out of our living room.  She wanted it but didn’t come to get it for a few months. The photo does show that our fall weather is effecting everything to look bleak just like this side of the zinnia patch.

Leftover shot from a couple of evenings ago. We are getting great skies with all the cold and wind making things shift around.

I have mentioned before that we have a lot o dogs in our neighborhood.  I am getting to know some of them and others I don’t see so often.  This large dog is wearing a t-shirt.  I don’t know why but I took a shot after they had gone by. I could see him going back down the hill a block over when I looked out back about five  minutes later.

I am not a fan of fall weather but today we are now getting sunshine.  I guess it is so welcomed as we just don’t see much sun with all those rainclouds. We are going to be flooding down here again as the north country just keeps getting so much rain. The riders in northern Iowa are all filled from so much rain that those near the Des Moines Rive are overtaking it.  Our lake which is filled by the Des Moines River is back up to almost overflow stage again. That is a drastic change of being 34 feet high then most all of it was drained out the past four weeks.  Now it is filling again.

My wife helped me today with some work in the gallery area.  We both are tired and will be glad to rest this afternoon. I hope everyone is doing well.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Wednesday’s Evening Skies.......

As the cold front from the north heads south to our warm day we had some wonderful cloud formations.  Eventually the storms did develop south of us and they received rain.

The cold front did arrive and we have cold weather. We weren’t freezing but we were about 8 degrees away from it.  I mowed my back yard with a heavy coat and a hat to keep warm.  I had to mow today as the rains are starting back up tomorrow.

I over talked about this tree but it is in the ground. I didn’t plant it in a bad location as I could see where the four different lines were located.  I need to put one more thing in this arrangement and then I have fabric and mulch to put around it all. I mowed the back yard at the one inch level today so it took a long time to plow through the three inch grass. It doesn’t match my neighbor’s height but he doesn’t pay my taxes. The red bud will probably take a couple of years to get established in that clay soil.

I think it is still too early to clear everything in the gardens. I have tomatoes still on my vines so I don’t need to cut them back just yet. The bigger tomatoes were falling off the vine so I know they will be done pretty soon. We had tacos last night putting some fresh tomatoes in them. If we do get a hard freeze predicted I can go out and pick them green and bring them inside.

It has been a hard working day so I am ready to sit and warm up this afternoon.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Wednesday’s Report.....

The morning was hot and the wind blew hot air fro, the south.  It felt like a furnace vent was blowing outside as I step onto the deck. The day isn’t going to be good but I did get some things done outside before it became 80 degrees. Front yard has been mowed, the tree and shrub has been planted in the back. I have a weed cloth to put on around the tree and shrub but I think that will be done on another day. I called the number to get people to come mark where the power lines and cable wires were running.  I watched him work and he worked fast spraying red and yellow lines.  I don’t think he saw me watching but he didn’t use a device to spot them.   He had done them all over the town and the boxes sit a certain location in the corner of the lot.  He ran horizontal spray can paint lines along the back along the fence.  He ran lines up from the boxes, showing where the cable line was  probably running to the house.  He also had the electric line marked and the phone line.  They were marked where I would have thought they would be and so I met my obligation "to call before I dig”.

I shared these two trees last fall with them changing color.  We are just seeing spots of fall on a few trees.  The one in front here is a maple and it will show great color before the birch in the background. The location of this set of trees it a whole block over below us.  It is on the opposite side of the street and you can see their property has a steep bank to go down into their back yard.

This is the vine that I bought a few years back.  I removed it from its three inch pot and put it into a larger one. It just keeps growing but for some reason I developed some yellowing.  I guess I must have missed a watering for a couple of weeks. It may be time to trim it back a little.

The leaves are falling on my plastic geese.  As I stepped out on the deck this morning two really Canadas flee overhead directly and they were honking loud and strong.  It is the season for the geese to fly south.  At the lake yesterday I saw feeding frenzy of pelicans, a black duck I am  not familiar with, and sea gulls flying all around. It was next to the bridge and I could not take a shot. I think we see less migration in the fall than in the spring.  The waterfowl seems to go further west and fallows the Missouri River down to the gulf.  My plastic geese will be carried into the garden shed.


Thanks for checking in on my post today. Have a good day.

Yesterday’s Rainy Day......

It rained seven out of the last eight days.  Yesterday the begonia was appreciating the moisture and today we are dry. The deck flower garden has really worked well for us and I have plans to do the same thing next year.

In the old house we have a new addition, 34 years old, that has a slanted ceiling. The tiles give it an old fashion look with the hanging chandelier.  Today I had a hole of removed eight tiles. I had to put the new ones in and no one can now see where those eight tiles were originally.  It really did work out well for me as we had a leak and stain in the transition time of old roof was removed and new roof replaced. The phone takes blurry pictures as I can seem to hold the phone steady while I punch the button. This is the room where we had our art gallery and frame shop.  Also studios space for my wife was at the other end.

A miniature rose with such a pure pink bloom amazes me in its small size.  I have a larger rose down below that still is blooming.

It has been a long day and I am now finishing this blog post.  Thanks for stopping by today.

Monday, Monday..........

The goldfinch are irregular migrators.  All of them change feathers loosing the bright yellow colors.  A larger percentage does move south in the winter but some stay for as long as they can find food. The cardinal is one bird that did change its habits and kept staying over in the winter for longer periods of time. The finches haven’t been to the feeder as the weed seed out there is plentiful.  But these two showed up Sunday afternoon for a while.

I purchased two of these little mums recently.  I knew they wouldn’t be much for show this fall but they are ready for next years bloom.  I try to plant for the future rather than buy the large ones for big prices. I can tell that I am wearing down as I passed up buying some more tulip bulbs. I did feel like I wanted to do that.  I did just finish planting a couple dozen of globe alliums.

This is the window in the downstairs room next to where I have set up my studio.  I have only used the studio because the one grandson was here wanting to paint. I like having the planter furniture in the window and the plants in the window so my studio is in a dark place. The window being at ground level makes a great view of the back yard.  The birds have control of the sliding glass doors as they do like to look outside year round.

My solution to my drawing table area was to go ahead and move it in front of the plants. I didn’t think it would look right but it does seem to do well.  People working on any art or craft really do prefer natural light. You have to excuse the junk but it is used for storage right now and not creating artwork. Maybe this winter I can sit down on that new desk chair and do something. As I am downstairs the arrangement looks more natural than I expected. You can see my aquarium is next to my shoulder now.

I know it is time to start to cut down spent plants. My neighbors have their garden cleared but they did plant a few weeks earlier than me.  I have replaced a peony in the front yard that was not blooming.  I brought an old fashioned one that originated from my wife’s grandparents farm. I had four of them growing at the old place.  I will be glad to see it taking off and showing all the new kinds of peonies already there how to bloom. The former owners have newly bred kinds of peonies that really are not very impressive when they bloom.

It is a foggy day and plans to stay that way all day.  It is the part of fall that I don’t like.  These kind of days prevent the sun from ever showing through. I am doing chores around the house but would prefer to get outside and work.  I wish you all to have a good Monday. Thanks.......