there was enough for everyone

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving - I hope you all did too. Our son who lives in Minneapolis was out for the afternoon on Thursday - to enjoy a holiday meal with us, catch the game, and do his laundry. It was great having him here, as always. The pooches enjoy holiday dinners too - there's always a handout if they're patient. Here, Kobie sits attentively while Mark carves the turkey - and then lies attentively when he realizes this is a BIG job!

Thursday night/Friday morning we had our coldest temps so far this season. There was a light skim of ice on the lake Friday morning. It was cold again last night, so this may be permanent. There is open water trying to push through the ice - but a few more cold nights and it will be solid. The bigger bays are still open water. I love it when the ice is first forming and when it's breaking up in the spring. As the open water collides with the ice, you can hear a "tinkle" that sounds like crystal - it's very pretty to listen to.

I put an iron tree on the dock. In this photo it looks like barbed wire! - but those are tiny red lights. At night you can see it from across the lake and all up and down the shore. I think it looks very cool. I'll try and get a photo at night to show you. I turned on the outside lights Thanksgiving evening - and have only had to replace one strand so far! I'm sure there will be more that decide to stop lighting before I'm ready to take them down in January!

Our cold nights are taking a toll on my flowers. I have a few rosebuds that still look pretty - but other than that, we're down to sedum. All in all, it was a very good year for my gardens - and I'm already thinking ahead to next spring.

I wanted to share some more info with you about the oil warmer and scented oils. I won mine in a contest Sandra at http://sandrasdance.blogspot.com/ sponsored on her blog awhile ago. A couple people have mentioned that they were going to look for the plug-in warmer. Check out Sandra's site at

www.yourscentyourway.com

She sells the warmers and oils - there is an extensive list of oils available. I love mine!!!

November blooms

Are you tired of my flowers yet? I think their days are numbered. We have had several mornings where the thermometer read in the 20's. However, last Friday I went out in a small flurry of snowflakes and took the first two photos below. The rest were taken today. I have to enjoy them while I can!!

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!!

turning colors in the gardens

I'm not doing very well on getting caught up in Blogland - but soon - promise!! We've had some gorgeous days, and I've been taking advantage of them. Soon enough I'll be spending more time inside, so I'm feeling the need to be outside enjoying the beautiful weather. Yesterday I went to lunch with my French classmate, Susan. Our teacher, Nadine, is in France visiting family, and she sent us an email. We checked our translations of her email with each other and then tried to come up with one to send to her. She'll get a good giggle out of our sentence construction, I'm sure!

I mowed the yard when I got back home yesterday. Today I washed windows and the porch screens. The dogs haven't been inside long enough to even re-slobber them yet - nice! We have a very small house - but it has 27 double-hung windows, 4 fixed windows (leaded glass by fireplace and two small ones in our bedroom), 6 basement windows, and 5 doors with windows. That is a ton of window washing!

I realized today that I have more iron pieces to share with you - what a surprise! :) I completely forgot about them when I was taking photos before. I also found several things still blooming in the gardens. And, finally, some of the plant leaves are turning pretty autumn colors.

The top photo is of geranium leaves - that bright red one is stunning. The second photo is my miscanthus ornamental grass. And coral bells in the bottom photo.

fall blooms - pt four

Another beautiful day - although quite a bit of wind this afternoon. We started taking the dock out this morning - and after two sections (out of nine), Mark asked if I still had the number I'd seen on a sign advertising dock removal. We have a ton of toys and all of the work that goes with them - and we ALWAYS do that work ourselves - so this was HUGE!!!! The guy came out about an hour later and had the rest of the dock out in about another hour. Boy, was that nice!! And easy!! It also made both Mark and me feel old, old, old - it would have taken us hours working together. sigh

I started moving my compost over the weekend and am over halfway done. It goes pretty fast once I start, so a few more hours and that job will be done. Then I have to shred a few more leaves that have fallen into the yard, and that job will be done too. I think we may be close to running out of jobs!!

But not yet - I still have all those lovely tulip bulbs to plant. And my dahlias are still in the gardens - blooming away - and I really hate to cut them back when they look so beautiful. But if I'm going to save them, I think I'd better do it soon. From what I've read, I need to cut them to about 6 inches - and then a week later I can dig them up, dry them, and store for the winter.

This was my first time planting dahlias, and I have been simply delighted with how gorgeous they are and how many blooms I've had. Very fun.

more autumn roses

What a lovely day we had today. The boat is out and winterized and tucked under a tarp for the winter. A big job that Mark is happy to have out of the way. Now, on to the dock!! :)

Wanted to show you more of my roses still in bloom. I love that this little show is lasting. This is Knockout - I planted it in a half-barrel container this summer and then moved it to the garden about a month ago. It seems to be very happy in its new home.

These two photos are of J.F.Quadra - my climber on the rainbow trellis. I talked to my neighbor a couple weeks ago and asked if he would mind if I painted the cement block wall on our side. He said no problem - so maybe the flowers in this garden will have a happier background next year.

This very floppy bloom is Gertrude Jekyll. She'll be going underground soon. This is a zone 5 David Austin rose - and I've found that it does better if I bury it for the winter. A lot of work, but well worth it. I wish you could smell this rose - it is simply wonderful.

And Nearly Wild. I have 3 of these roses and all three are covered in blooms right now. Very pretty.

fall blooms - pt two

Thanks for the nice comments about my fall blooms! We have not had a frost here yet. And it doesn't look like we're expecting one in the next week, so I'll get to enjoy these lovelies for awhile longer. The roses always put on a great show in the fall - the colors seem more intense, the fragrance is stronger, and they hold onto the more open, flouncy blooms longer. We had a beautiful day today and managed to get a lot of work out of the way - as well as a little play time. The dogs were laying on the floor tonight looking totally worn out!

"Jackmani" clematis

sedum "Autumn Joy"

"Autumn Joy" with "Purple Dome" asters

"Purple Dome"

"Madison" roses

fall blooms

We've had two very windy days now, and I'm happy to report the oil/gas film on the lake from our neighbors' boat sinking has disappeared.

Our boat was pulled yesterday, so this weekend we'll be getting that winterized and ready to cover for the winter. If the weather cooperates, we'll also try and get a start on taking the dock out. It's way more fun getting all of these things out in the spring than putting them away this time of year! Here are a few more of the blooms I've been enjoying the last week or so.

Carefree Beauty rose

hibiscus

turtlehead

snakeroot (I think "Brunette")

anemone

veronica

John Davis rose

looking for Mr Sun

Another grey, rainy day. I need some sun!!!! I know we need the rain - a very dry summer means all of the gardens and trees and the lake are loving this rain. But I'm ready for a break.

I thought I would show you more of my tuberous begonias. They waited most of the summer to take off, but they are adding some nice spots of color in the gardens now.