Finding Fall

Do you ever get just plain desperate for a blog idea? How do you jog free some creative ideas for the next post?

I grabbed my camera and headed outside in the late afternoon sun to see what I might capture. I have worn out the Aren't the Horses Handsome, the Cute, Precious Grand Kids, the canning, the too many weeds laments, the  brag posts on the Gorgeous Tomatoes, the Awesome Peppers, and would you look at those Cukes. The Roses are Fading has become cliche. I needed inspiration on this gorgeous fall day.

So I wandered over to the neighbors and shot their front garden. Their glorious mums planted around the rusted old plow scream" FALL" so I poached a photo.

With most of the flowers fading or gone, there is little left in the garden to photograph--or is there? 

Out by the mail box on the road side the last milk weed sports its seed pods that are just beginning to open. I want to spend more time photographing the seeds. They are awesome. 

No seed collection would be complete without the pine cone. 

Or the rudbeckia

You can see how the black berry lily came by its name with its collection of black berry looking seeds clustering at the top of the stalk.

The Jerusalem artichoke has very interesting seed pods.

Finally, the clematis seed head, puffy, puppy dog looking. 

Another Sign of Fall

This morning as week end company left, I heard my friend calling her 3 year old grand daughter to "Hurry, come see." I thought she had spotted one of the cotton tails that roam the acreage. Instead she wanted to show her a couple of hot air balloons floating above. They floated right over the house about half a mile high. Another sign of fall around here, hot air balloons floating in the early morning cold air with slight breezes to carry them on what must a glorious journey. Have you ever ridden in a hot air balloon? Me neither. Don't like small baskets air born half a mile up. Nope. Not me. 

Fall Planting Plans

Saturday started out as a simple trip to town to drop off the plastic pots for recycling at Ft. Collins Nursery, lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant, and groceries.  Ha. Who ever heard of a quick stop at the nursery to just drop off plant pots?  Nope. Me neither. Not only did I go inside to take a look, I bought daffodils and garlic. Hard neck garlic for our area.  We haven't planted garlic before and I want to plant some this fall. Let's head over to Bath Garden Center, I suggest. Of course, he agrees. More bulbs. I have a plan for the front weed patch garden. More daffodils and narcissus. More giant alliums. A fewMediterranean Bells, new to the garden. I've got a plan. More tulips. More of everything. More color for next spring. I want to be blinded, overwhelmed (as was Wordsworth when he saw a field of daffodils; so over come was he that he had commit his vision to verse) with color. 

No doubt you noticed my absence over the last couple of weeks. We  had out-of-state company last week and friends from the Western slope this week end, so there has been lots of cleaning and preparing for company. Hopefully now things will be quiet and I--we-- can get out in the garden to put my plan to work. As long as the weather holds.

Colorado put on a nice show for the guests from Texas. They woke up Friday to snow. Wet, drizzling snow.

We expected a killing freeze along with the skiff of snow that drifted over the Garden Spot.

The roses were in their fall glory with the cooler weather.

So I picked as many of the mature blooms as possible and my guest arranged them in a beautiful bouquet that lasted several days. 

We had planned to take out guests to Estes Park to see the elk, shop, have a nice lunch. September's flood swept away 85% of the highway, leaving Estes Park an impossible destination. The first week end in October is Elkfest in Estes Park, CO when the bulls are in rutt. They put on quite a show in the alpine meadows as they court the ladies to assemble their breeding herds. The city cashes in by turning Mother's Nature's call to procreate into a festival; however, although Elkfest went on as a planned,  few attended because they couldn't get there. So we took our guests up Poudre Canyon, always a nice mountain drive. As you can see, the trees at the top of hill look as though they had been flocked. The colors were stunning with the white flocked trees, the blackened landscape that had burned last year in the forest fire, and the bit of green lingering from summer.

And, higher up the valley, snow. Real snow. The visitors were happy.

The house is empty again. I have hopes of getting outside to plant the bulbs and to get to the garden center to buy more. I have a big space to fill, but the weather is supposed to turn cold and wet. 

Thank you for stopping by. I enjoy reading your comments. I get back into my blog routine now that life has returned to normal. Have a great week.