Autumn

The harvest season has come and gone. I have some great pictures that are stuck on my SD card, so I'll just have to wait until later to share them. It's been a great Fall. It stayed warm for quite awhile, and there was a nice peak of color, but even now a few trees (including our own bright yellow Maple out front) are just passing their own color peak now. The first frost was mid-late October (apparently I was too busy to write down the date), and it was very obvious in the morning which plants could tolerate a frost and which could not, as the non-hardy annuals' leaves just withered and darkened and died after that first bit of cold.

I regret not having gotten out much during those last glorious Fall days, but in my past month of much less work than usual, I'm finding that I've still got more than enough to do. Even the quieter months in my job would be busy months for the average person. Time to start looking for a part-time position for when this job is over!!

Despite the ample room Mike and I have to garden (all 4 sides of the house and a vegetable garden), we still feel like we're two gardeners crammed in a very small space, bumping elbows and knees in a small closet of green. We just want to plant too much! Mike's planning to rent a garden plot next year for some more space-occupying crops, and he's been ordering lots of varieties of heirloom tomatoes ("All of the good ones are going to sell out!"), already declaring next year the year of the tomato. I've bought a few bulbs-- tulips and hyacinths-- to fill out my Spring garden, although I haven't even gotten all of those planted yet.

And I'm kind of ready for winter. I won't mind too much sitting inside and planning the perfect garden plots, even though I might not be able to use all of my plans for next year. It will be nice to have some time to just sit and think about gardens; there is a lot to discover from reading about flowers.

Well, here's a few pictures from our vacation to Rocky Mountain National Park in early September, where I was inspired to incorporate some boulders and mountain asters into my garden design, build a rock-filled stream in the yard, and decorate everything like a log cabin!

pink flowers that made every spot they decorated look even prettier


the tundra

some of the other few flowers left blooming


big rosehips!

berry-looking things that weren't eaten,
but we DID have a few mountain blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries....
and you have not eaten a berry
until you've tried one fresh from a mountain bush!

(Check out my facebook page for some really awesome mountain scenery!)