lovely weekend

We are in the midst of a lovely autumn weekend. Our city does a clean-up every spring and fall that allows residents to get rid of the junk. Today was the fall clean-up. Mark cleaned out some stuff in the garage and put it out by the curb yesterday. This morning some guy came by and took over half of it. One person's junk is another person's treasure!!

One of our neighbors who has given me leaves in past years knocked on the door last night asking if I needed more this year. NO!!!! I'M DONE! Yeah, that's what my brain was screaming at me, but this morning I headed over there and brought home 13 bags of oak leaves. I'm pathetic.

We have had a stack of logs on the side of the driveway since last summer when we trimmed up a maple tree. This afternoon we rented a splitter, split all the logs, and hauled them back to the firewood pile. I still have to actually add them to the pile, but the hardest part of the job is done at least. And the driveway looks much nicer.

It's supposed to be near 60 tomorrow - key word "supposed to be" - so I'm thinking I'll take the opportunity to put hooks in the porch to hang Christmas lights this year. On one of our drive-arounds last year, I picked up some cool ideas for lights, and I can't wait to try them out. The lights won't be turned on until after Thanksgiving, but it is way nicer to put them up when it's 60 than when it's 30!!

If it does hit 60, I want to get down to the Arb for a walk - I haven't been there for awhile, and I think it would do my gardener's soul some good. Maybe I'll even remember my camera - although I think most of our leaves have fallen. I picked Mark up at the airport yesterday and was surprised to see quite a few trees that still have leaves near there. Mark is hoping to get in a motorcycle ride if it's warm tomorrow. Gosh, we seem to have a lot riding on tomorrow's temperature! :)

A few things are still blooming in the gardens. I emptied out the last of my containers today - very sad since they're still blooming. I left this one with the geraniums - I'll pull them after we have a hard frost. The first two photos are "Hawkeye Belle" - this rose is peach to lt pink in the summer - but now with cooler temps it's a little deeper color - very pretty. The next photo is my green leafed snakeroot. These have a ton of bloom stalks - but just started to bloom. If we'd had an earlier frost, they wouldn't have bloomed this year. And the bellflowers are blooming again. I really wish things could just keep blooming away until next April when the tulips start in again!!

flowers too, of course

I have these tall lilies by the porch. I think I planted them 5 or 6 years ago, so I have a pretty good clump of them by now. They are pretty stunning when blooming.
These equally tall, but pink, lilies are in the same garden. Together, they put on quite a show.
These gorgeous red lilies are down by the gazebo. I adore this dark red.

Isn't this a great lily?

The coreopsis is starting to bloom. I think these little bright yellow flowers and fine foliage are very pretty. They brighten up the summer garden.

Had to show you this spiderwort. These white and purple blooms appear to be on the same plant. Many years ago, I put in what looked like one plant and it had both colors when it bloomed. Now I have at least 3 clumps that have both colors blooming side by side.

Most of the white blooms have this cool purple center. A few are totally white, but I like the purple centered ones best.

This coneflower is either a native Minnesota wildflower that volunteers in one of my lakeshore gardens - or it's from a packet of Colorado wildflower seeds that Mark brought back from the Denver airport many years ago. Whichever, it's very cool and seems to love lots of sun and fairly dry soil. The leaves are very similar to blue flax.

This is a volunteer bellflower. I love the little flower so much that I have a tat on my ankle that looks very similar to one of these blooms!

This I believe is a cluster bellflower that one of my gardening neighbors gave me. The blurry yellow behind it is the evening primrose. Kind of a nice combo. They are both spreaders, so in a few years, this may be what the entire garden looks like!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY,

DAD AND EVERETT AND MARK!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY ANNI & TOM!