Catch-Up

I am working my way toward bedtime, though I am not in much of a hurry. I am behind with the blog. I missed a whole week. So I will take you back a week, mostly because this week was so uneventful. We did have snow. A bit. Not even note worthy, despite the big build up the weather people gave it: "fast moving," "potentially dangerous," "high winds," "blizzard." For us none of the a fore mentioned happened. Two inches at most. I opened up my university email only to find that the school was on a delayed schedule for snow removal with the 8 AM class canceled.

"What?"

"No Way."

Fortunately I do not teach Wednesdays, but for those professors who had their classes arbitrarily canceled for snow removal, they were not happy. I am speculating that there is a new person in charge of snow removal. Maybe one who worked for public school system that cancels an entire district when the threat of a huge storm looms. (exaggerating, of course); however, university campuses seldom close, let alone go with the late start favor for those who want to sleep in. Okay. So yeah. Greeley had more snow, 6 inches, but not worth canceling class or delayed start. Wimpy. As I told my students on Thursday: "You put your boots on and slog through the snow.

More snow this week. Another worrisome, dangerous storm headed our way on Tuesday. I'd better check my email first to make sure my 11:00 class isn't canceled. We don't have many days of class left. I can't afford to miss any.

I do have some photos to share. The week I missed in review:

Happy Birthday

Elinore's birthday was Friday. Her mother goes to great effort to create a fantasy birthday party for the each girl. She made the palm tree, the shell mobile, and the ship's mast from old fence posts scrounged from our pile of left-overs. She made the octopus out of cheese cloth and starch. The decorations didn't go to waste because she used them to redecorate Ellie's bedroom with the mermaid nautical theme.


Even the food carried through the mermaid theme with banana dolphins and  yellow pepper octopus. Ellie doesn't like sweets, so her cake was was unfrosted with layers of fresh fruit. So yummy.

She has grown up so much. While her sister is a dancer, Elinore loves to create art work. Right now she is working with air dry clay and loves to do bead work. She loves her pet rabbit, Peter, who shares her room.

 A Life Saved

My favorite chair sits with its back toward the patio door. I heard a rather heavy thud on the door, knowing immediately that a bird had hit its glass pane. As I opened the patio door, I caught a fleeting glimpse of large bird swooping away. A hawk. On the deck floor lay an unconscious flicker. I gathered it up and placed it on the patio table, sure that it would die.

I am not one to take gruesome photos, so once the bird began to recover, I took these two photos. It actually took the little guy all afternoon to recover from flying into the door. I do believe that he was fleeing from one of the local hawks that regularly patrols the area.

The flicker begins to slowly opens his eyes. I would check on him frequently, petting him, stroking him gently. My last effort to pet him halted when he took sturdy flight for the nearest tree. I really held out little hope he would recover.

Jack Frost

Jack Frost has been courting Autumn the last few days, leaving his artwork behind. 

The woolly thyme that covers the ground in the front courtyard succumbed to Jack's handy work, looking all lacy and pretty. Autumn had to be impressed.

The little water garden had a thin layer of crystal clear ice cover it it. We need to drain the pond and get the pump out before it freezes hard, like tomorrow since we are supposed to have blizzard II.

The roses are done for sure now. I gave them a nice feeding a few weeks ago to help them winter over.

Ice crystals and roses just don't go together, do they?

Even my little supermarket bargain roses bloomed hardily at the end of the season, only to have their lives suspended when Jack came to visit.

Monarda dead heads, pretty with ice.

Jack just had to cast his spell on the rose hips, too. Red in the garden this time year is so welcome to break up the otherwise drab landscape.

So, there you are. Life has a peaceful, easy feeling (to borrow from my favorite rock 'n rollers The Eagles). The Head Gardener has cleaned up the vegetable garden, tiling it yesterday. It is all clean now ready for next spring. Jack can dance on the bare canvas all he wants.

Enjoy your week.

Linking up with Lavender Cottage for Mosaic Monday. Join us. It's fun.

Roses Again, More Trees, and a Birthday Boy

The days shorten with the sun setting sooner each day. We turned our clocks back this morning. I always forget to reset them the night before. The weather here remains mild, cooler, but lots of sun. Jack Frost has been slinking around in the early wee hours of morning, leaving his tell-tale icy blanket covering the lawn and garden. So far he hasn't done much damage. The roses are the always the last to go, so last week when the weather predictors cautioned that the temperatures would sink below freezing, I went out just before bed to snip off the last of the roses.

Veteran's Pride. What a grand rose. Using my iPhone, I photographed her outside placing her on the thin ice that covered the bird bath. That's how cold it got that night. I had the roses in the house a couple of days before I took this photo, hoping that they would open up more.

I was quite surprised this time with the color of the red. Out front where she lives, I am never able to get the red the right tone in the photo.

Isn't she just grand?

Inside  I caught First Prize basking in the late afternoon sun as it filtered through the kitchen window.

Again using my iPhone, I took macros of this delicate pink rose. There were just two blooms left to pick.

I am still impressed with that little camera on the iPhone and it is an older phone, too.

The roses outside aren't done yet. They show new growth with new buds forming. I doubt they will be able to bloom again. I'll let you know. It is hard to tell them good-bye for the winter, isn't it?

With our mild weather, the fall colors continue to astound us. This week's mosaic shows the beautiful Autumn Blaze Maples trees at the university. The first photo I shared with you a couple of weeks ago in the parking lot across the street from my university office. Now in the trees are in their full color glory. Once again, using my phone, I was able to capture them.

Finally The Very Bad Dog celebrated his birthday yesterday. No, I didn't bake him a cake as his daddy tried to get me to do. Instead, I took his photo for Facebook and the blog.

See how nicely he stays while I take his photo. I followed him as he went about his morning. He is a busy boy. He runs like the wind, looks for mice in very odd places--here a pipe in the wall in the barn--, he helps feed the hens, and does his share of work when it's time to feed the horses. When he is not trying to dig Mo the cat out from under the bed, tearing up the bedding and other destructive little antics (like chewing up socks), he keeps us entertained. 

Surrendered by his breeder at 4 months along with 4 other siblings to a small vet clinic in Grant, Nebraska (a teeny prairie town), he got lucky when the Head Gardener picked him from a photo on the clinic's web site. Handful that he is, he is a sweet, happy boy that keeps us company.

So that's the way it is here at the Garden Spot. this week. I'll be linking with Lavender Cottage for Mosaic Monday tomorrow. Thanks, Judith, for hosting.

Thanks to you for visiting. 

Their Last Glory

We have had a busy week. Perhaps the best part of the week for the garden was rain, much needed rain for two days. Previously, October had record setting heat. The lawn had started to brown just as the deciduous trees were beginning to change color. So while the lawn greened up, the wet leaves heavy with rain began to fall to the ground, dusting the ground beneath each tree with a blanket of gold. The two ash trees are two different varieties, each with their own personality. The first one in the row is full bodied tree on fire with reds, oranges, deep browns. It is probably my favorite tree. Second in line, the yellowed ash is the slowest to bloom and the first to shed her leaves. We have 3 ash tress on the property, which I treasure because they bring on the color.

Standing tall next to the  with patio, the honey locust isn't a bit shy with her color; bright with yellow, her leaves easily find their way into the house, especially when damp with rain, sticking to the bottom of our shoes, the dog's feet, the cat's paws. The largest of the leafy trees, it had immense  growth over the summer due to the large amount of spring rain. Soon these lovelies will be bare and asleep for the winter.


With the rain pouring down, I drug out my old London Fog rain coat. Oh, such good memories. The coat has been around for a long time. I bought it in 2001 for my first trip to England. It was water proof, light weight, easy to carry or pack. It traveled again with me when I packed it again for a wonderful tour of Ireland in 2003 and once again when our tour returned to England in 2003. At the university where I taught, one of the tenured professors whose field of study was the Romantic Period of English literature put together these tours for the  English majors studying English literature. They were wonderful tours so well planned to trace to steps of England and Ireland's great writers, the highlight of my life. So now to take out the old coat when it rains, I wrap myself in sweet memories, protected from the foul weather. The zipper doesn't work any more because Mo the cat went through a fabric chewing phase and the coat fell victim. He ruined so many of my favorite garments. The London Fog has a row of snaps, too, so I can snap it shut if it is really cold. I wore my old friend this week. It felt good. We had a bit of a chat and decided that perhaps we should travel again.

                           

The roses are in their last flush. Gertrude Jekyll looks amazing here at the end of the season. Drenched in rain with the dust washed off, she looks as sweet as she smells. Next to her, First Prize, blooms, proudly displaying her huge blossoms. It seemed to take all summer for the roses to reach their full potential. They were slow to break through in the spring, slow to bloom, and slow to reach their mature sizes. Well worth the wait, I'd say.

                              

Veteran's Honor out did herself again at the end of this season. Huge and red with perfect rose buds. For some reason a camera just does not capture the glorious shade of red. In fact, I used my iPhone camera for all of tonight's post.

 Glorious in their mosaic, I hope they look good for Mosaic Monday. Be sure to check out all of the great mosaics at Lavender Cottage.

Desperate for interesting stuff to add to the post this week, I'll share my Facebook post titled "We have a very bad dog."

This Boone Doggle will go to any lengths to root out the cat, even destroy the bed skirt. Shame on him.

There you have it. Another week down as we move through Autumn. I hope you are enjoying the cooler weather, the gorgeous colors, hot soups, and a slower pace. 

Happy Halloween, too.

Thanks for taking time to visit.

Doppleganger

Finally peace and quiet in the house after a weekend of out of town company, who I always love to entertain, and grand daughters who don't come over nearly often enough. The friends brought their two granddaughters, so the girls (five of them) made new friends.

I have been reading my blog list everyday, commenting along the way, but my own blog suffers from my lack of attention. So I have some catching up to do.

Fall slides into Colorado slowly with Summer holding her hand, telling her, "Not yet, Autumn, for I am not ready to let go. I'll let you know when you can have full command of the land. Not just yet." Summer has been quite reluctant to leave; instead showing that she is still in control with record setting heat in the last few weeks.

Today's mosaic features Autumn's indignation to Summer's reluctance to leave. There are just some things that Summer can't control. Most of the trees here at the Garden Spot are pine trees that keep the same temperament year round. But we do have a few deciduous trees such as this Autumn Purple Ash. Outside she is brilliant red, and from my bathroom window, I can see her warm glow. I guess the iPhone photo doesn't really do the tree justice. The honey locust on the other side of house radiates as the delicate leaves turn golden. From my living room window, her glow shines through the lace.

                           

There are more signs of fall around the Garden Spot. Behind the haystack, for example, grow a variety of squash growing from seeds and old squash last year, discarded there last season for birds to pick at. We have a better squash crop out there than in the garden, including the stripy ones that could be watermelons. Most of the squash are spaghetti squash and crossovers, including what the green striped ones might be. 

Then there is the Head Gardener and his new toy, an old Case tractor, one that he confessed to other to having wanted since he was kid. This one has a bush hog for cutting large areas of grass. This is his first time to run it here. Happy Anniversary, Dear. (41st last week).

My Doppelganger

(I easily could lie and say that I am in such good shape that I look 40 instead of 68 or that I spent the week at a spa. Ha). 

Instead  I called in my doppelganger to help with the center circle project that has been a thorn all summer long.

Before:  Most of the ground covering weeds had been cleared away. The Head Gardener bought a trailer load of bagged mulch. Before they were done, they put down over 50 bags and ran out.

The HG rototilled to get a clean surface (or to till the weed seeds in).

Then Heather applied the industrial strength chemical weed barrier, Snap Shot. The weed barrier will probably thwart the sprouting of volunteer good plants, but that is okay since the spot is full of thistle, spurge, and other sorts of nasty annual weeds. I want a clean look with little work. After she applied the weed barrier, she and her dad spread the mulch. 

After: a clean pallet that I will have fun filling in with perennials--or not. Just a nice clean look. Of course, the bind weed will return and we still have vinca to get rid of, but at least we made some progress.

Before I left the university Friday, it was such a beautiful day, I wandered over the vegetable garden next to where I park behind the Sciences building. Last summer the university offered urban gardening courses. There are two green houses next to this small plot, which already had faded in to fall. But I was quite impressed.

Here, the gourds use the apple tree as a climbing support. The garden is enclosed with a nice split rail fence that is lined with a variety of fruit trees. I don't know much about the garden itself, but I am very encouraged that the school is encouraging gardening. As a liberal arts school, it does not offer much in the way of horticulture.

I had to take a photo of this part of campus of the new residence halls. The campus is so gorgeous this time of year. I used my iPhone and was so pleasantly surprised to see this effect. It would be nice to say that the angles are watching over the students, but I was shooting into the sun, but don't you just love the effects?

I took a second one. The flashes didn't show on the phone screen, so I was quite amazed at the results.

These gorgeous trees are in another parking lot where I parked that day. I am not sure what kind of trees they are, but they slowly turn turn a brilliant red. Autumn Red maples, perhaps?

As I cross the street to enter campus, these fire red trees make a spectacular view.

Past the vegetable garden, the campus sprawls on with the residence halls, library, and class building.

There was a time when the campus looked rather ratty, but some years ago the university hired a horticulturist to beautify the campus. He and his crew have done a wonderful job of bringing color to the campus and keeping it well groomed and beautiful.

A tree line avenue welcomes college students along with the citizens who travel 11th Avenue. The trees will turn deep red as the season continues, unless and early snow or heavy rain ruins them.

And look what we found hanging out the pond the other day. We never know what we will find out there.  

We picked all of the tomatoes the other day, so the garden has officially closed. Finally. We have hopes of doing a better job next year. Too many other projects this year I guess to keep a neat garden. But gardens have a way of forging on despite neglect, don't they?

We said farewell to Elizabeth of Cornish Cream this week as she announced that she was leaving Blog Land. I know many of you followed her. I will miss her; she was always so cheerful, shared good stories, and wonderful photos. I do wish her the best and will miss her. She sent me a few scraps of lace and ribbon that I am using in the dollhouse, making the those little projects so special. 

And now, dear friends, back to reality. I have some grading to do. I am loving the freshmen. We are half way through the semester and I am beginning to connect to the students. I am enjoying every single moment because I don't think there will be anymore. 

I wish you a good week, and thanks so much for keeping up with me, even as I neglect the Garden Spot for a while. 

Linking to Mosaic Monday