November Sunny Afternoon

We had a glorious day yesterday in our part of the world. I heard it was in the 70’s! We took advantage of the weather and spent time working on our frontyard remodel project. Our sweet gums are starting to become a riot of color, turning red and orange overnight.

We are getting very close to being finished. I know I keep promising a post sharing what we have done but I want to wait until the project is completed before tackling that post. We put down weed block because we were already getting some grass sprouting with our last rains. The rocks are a work in progress….we keep rearranging them as we finish the planting.

I think this is the last of the hardscape going in which is a path up to my faucet and around to the backyard. I will be planting bulbs around the edges of the blocks as soon as they arrive in the mail.

The leaves are falling gently and this one landed on the step…..love the yellow contrast with the blue/green tiles.

The birds were loving the idea that they are getting a new feeding station. The red/orange bush on the left is our new smoke tree and Mr. A is planting rosemary around the base of the pole.

Here is one bird that I was able to catch in mid-song the other day in the backyard.

They enjoy the sunshine as much as we do I think.

This morning we woke up to rain….pouring rain. I am sitting inside with my cup of coffee and shopping for seeds. I know that nothing perks me up more than thinking and planning for the next summer’s garden. We are hoping to finish the front yard and turn our attention to a whole new garden project in the backyard. I am going to be concentrating on flowers and colors so my garden will be filled with lots of things to draw and paint.

Where is my favorite online source for flower seeds? Renee’s Garden of course! I dare you to pop over there and not feel better even just looking at her front page. What is on my shopping list? Zinnias, sunflowers, dahlias, hollyhocks, and California poppies. I want color!

Oh, I want to share something else I have been meaning to write about on this blog. I have recently started reading and receiving the Herbal Roots Zine.

If you haven’t seen Kristine’s web page or seen any of her monthly zines, I highly recommend them as a great way to incorporate nature study into your month. This month she is featuring sage which happens to be something new we planted in our front yard…two different kinds. I now know a lot more about this very interesting plant. I will write a review of one of the issues soon so stay tuned for that.

That is the news from my world. Hope you are having a great autumn weekend and are doing some weather observations for this week’s challenge.