Falling for fall... again...

I love the crisp air of fall... and the beautiful colors of the leaves....

And although I miss the hummingbirds and swallows, we begin seeing some different birds frequenting our backyard and feeder. Here is our year-round dove (right) and a Northern Flicker (left).



Other beautiful colors come in the form of mums....


I had read where you're supposed to keep them trimmed back till mid-July so they don't get too big and/or bloom too early. The green I cut off was so nice and pretty, I wondered if it would grow too, so I stuck it in some water... and roots began to appear. Now we have two pots of mums instead of just the one I bought last year. How cool is that?!

It always seems like the garden (especially my peppers) look better than they have all year-- about the time the weatherman starts talking about frost. This year the tomatoes were still growing like crazy too. At least I have several bags of each in the deep freeze for winter!

I also replanted some lettuce hoping for some fresh fall salads. (They've been delicious so far!) That's our third patch of pole beans behind the lettuce and herbs. Blue Lake pole beans are the best if you want my opinion!

The bees have been busy too... trying to get that last bit of pollen.

This was taken October 25... no freeze yet, but it's in the forecast. We're getting ready. Today we got the gourds down and hung to dry (after these pics were taken). And notice the box on the right? Ron built that over the lettuce. Hopefully we'll be eating it all winter now.

A closer shot of the cold frame

This is the backyard where we planted 8 snapdragons a couple years ago. They come up everywhere-- and make it through the first few freezes. It's now mid-November and they look even better than this photo. Maybe I should take a new one. (This photo taken Nov 1-- It looks better enlarged.)