September 30th...

It was such a gorgeous day today that I spent some time this afternoon in the gardens.
Everything is still so bright and beautiful that it is hard to believe it is September 30th already.
I also saw my first junco of the season (he was too quick for my camera) which is a good reminder that this beautiful autumn is passing way to quickly.
While my afternoon was spent outside...my morning was spent loving on these chubby cheeks. Mari is growing so fast and she actually looks like she is interested in my babblings :)

mosaic Monday...weekend shots

I hope you all had a great weekend - I sure enjoyed mine. On Saturday morning, I was able to celebrate with many of Ashley's friends & family the gift of Mari Joy at her baby shower.By the time I got home J had the camper loaded up and we were off to take one last camping trip of 2011. Usually, we camp well into October to enjoy the fall colors but this year we are on "baby bee watch" as well as attending weekend baby showers for Jayme & baby bee. As usual we spent our final camping weekend of the season at Lac qui Parle state park where you camp on the prairie and enjoy the views of the river from your campsite. I imagine it would be quite hot in the summer but in the cool of the fall there is no better place to sit outside and watch the deer in the meadow below and enjoy a great campfire.

We spent our afternoon geocaching in the area and definitely have found a new hobby to enjoy. As we drove along we came across a flock of egrets alongside the road but shooting into the late afternoon sun left me with some blue photos.
By 7 pm we were back at the campsite and enjoying a glass of wine while watching a family fly kites as our dinner cooked on the grill.
Soon it was time to sit by the fire and enjoy the cool weather and sunset...

it was a great weekend!

mosaic Monday...morning birds

Two posts today...one for my family below and one for the other readers who came looking for birds and flowers...This morning I watched a robin who thought the rock was his alone, it didn't matter if it was other robins or as in the case above a mourning dove.
I'm grateful to still have hummingbirds visiting, especially since I got a window feeder and they feed 2 ft away from my chair!

Family...

My extended family got together this weekend so everyone would have a chance to meet Mari and some who have not seen Kinley yet. As always we have such a good time with lots of food, fun & laughter and because we are a good sized group we rent a community center and no one has to clean house before or afterwards :) I actually forgot my camera (a first!!) so the first 3 photos below were shared by Renae and the rest by Jayme.Above, Rachel & Allison meet Mari and below Alexis shows Ketcie her puppy.
Madeline and Jeremy, brother & sister to Allison above.
If you remember this post from June, I had made big sister, middle sister & little sister shirts for Ketcie, Keena & Kinley and I don't know if I used too small of a font or the vinyl was defective, but those names just wouldn't adhere right to the shirts. I emailed Silhouette and they gave me tips on trying again and also said the font shouldn't have been a problem. After numerous tries to make it work, Silhouette sent me a new roll of vinyl to try and on my second try I used a bigger font and this is the result. It was wonderful to work with a company that stood behind their products!
Of course Mari had to have a Silhouette creation as well - her shirt reads "Uncle Jeff digs Mari". We had to capture a photo of her with Uncle Jeff and the first try she slept through the photo shoot...
then when she was awake we tried again - by her expression, I'm pretty sure no one with a beard has held her yet.
I love his reaction to her sticking her tongue out at him!
She is so cute when she is sleeping and has her hand up by her face.
One of my favorite photos of the day...my beautiful daughter, Jayme meeting Mari for the first time and knowing that in 36 days or less she'll have a baby of her own. I also like that my handsome son is in the background too :)

morning has broken...

and I'm happy to report that our predicted temps of 27 degrees actually ended up being 30 degrees! So instead of a killing frost I had a light frost and at first light things look great.
Light frost still covers the lawn where the sunlight hasn't hit yet but everything else is quickly melting off.
Let's take a walk to see what's damaged...
it looks like only the tropicals have taken a hit including this elephant's ear and a few cannas. Interesting to note are that the tropicals in the ground froze but the elephant ears in the pond are fine.
I'm so happy it wasn't a killing frost that I thought the frost crystals were actually beautiful this morning...
as they looked like they edged some plants with a frosty lace.


Yet, I guess some things just aren't too pretty after being hit by frost :)

goodbye garden color?

We are in a hard freeze warning tonight with a low of 27 degrees forecast so I am expecting to lose much of my annual color tonight. Let's take one last garden walk...first up a shot showing the pond and the annuals in front of it...and a view of the "rock" side of the pond and the cabin.
The hummingbird garden borders the patio and I can pull up a chair 3 ft away and the hummers feed right in front of me - I definitely will be replanting salvias in this area again next year!
Behind the hummingbird garden is the Pine Lady with the fairy garden, Pine Hollow, below. Do you see my beautiful pink hardy hibscus? I covered it with a blanket as it is just filled with buds and the huge blossoms just make me smile - I'm not ready for that one to freeze yet.
Let's take the path to the cabin, I've pulled the dead poppies and planted some flowering kale, a magnolia tree and a new clematis in the area to the right.
This view to the left and the side of the rock shows my fall mums aren't even blooming yet - how could we be in a freeze warning?
I've been busy in the back of the garden, I transplanted the huge rooguchi clematis to the side of the back arbor and I've been digging, dividing and replanting the iris garden.
The middle garden has also seen lots of work lately, I dug out all the iris to divide as well as the overgrowth of brown eyed susans and anise hyssop. I replanted iris divisions, several new perennials including tomato soup coneflowers(I sure hope they overwinter well!), a pom pom cypress, a dogwood and a snowball viburnum in tree form.
As we walk the path to the clematis covered gazebo frogs are jumping into the pond with an almost constant spashing. I'm beginning to really dislike those guys so I hope the cooler weather finds them moving on. They distract me so much I forgot to put down the chair cushions before taking the photo - I usually leave them standing upright because they dry off faster :)
Exiting the gazebo we see the butterfly garden with only a few phlox left blooming as well as a morning glory. The yellow mums are just starting to blossom.
The view of the red door & clematis fence. The brown plants in front are the sweet williams I have left go to seed and babies are sprouting up everywhere.
As we leave the backyard we see the late afternoon sun reflecting off the barn, I didn't think to walk around and show the back which is still looking great as well.
A quick shot of the front bed before I got distracted by a frog jumping out of one of the pillar planters at me. After that I forgot to even photograph the rose garden!
Does anyone else have an unusual amount of frogs this year? My husband says they are all over our entire yard when he mows and at night many hop into our shop when the big door is open.

Frogs...

Our yard is full of frogs and the dogs like to hunt them out in the garden. They don't really have to hunt either - they are EVERYWHERE!They are all over the garden jumping across your path as you walk, this week they have moved into my potted plants and they are too many to count in the pond.

I'm sick of frogs and worried about where they are going to overwinter - the few in the pond each year don't survive and I'm not looking forward to cleaning this many up next spring.

garden shots...