There are very few things left blooming in my garden right now. Oddly enough, my Neptune (above) rose bush is absolutely covered with buds right now. There are even a few on my Elle (below) bush beside it. They are in a protected alcove in the front side of the house and that might be their secret. They even had rain droplets on them this morning, to make the perfect pictures.
The only other rose bud was on Gingersnap, but it wasn't that open yet.
Yesterday in my survey of the garden I found several buds on my Neptune rose bush. There are fewer and fewer blooms that are still surviving so I am trying to savor these last ones. Neptune is a lovely lavender color and they are extremely fragrant. Here's hoping that I have a few more. :)
This morning I walked out in the back yard to see what was going on. I just happened to look down and see an absolutely perfect spider web, gleaming in the morning dew. The web pictured above is just about the size of a half dollar. I guess it pays to take mt eyes off of the fall colors every now and then. :)
When I was checking what was going on in the front flower bed I noticed my Cranesbill geranium was peeping out of The Mum That Ate Alabama (T.M.T.A.A). It has flopped and sprawled all over and is still covered with blooms. I need to get it out of my other plants but don't have the heart to cut it back right now. The weather is still absolutely beautiful, in the 70's during the daytime. I'm enjoying it while it lasts :)
I went out into the garden yesterday evening to feed the fish and spotted this lovely hiding in the Angel Face rose bush. I have a few blooms straggling on my various roses and I am treasuring each of them. Angel Face made a remarkable recovery from black spot earlier that left it entirely naked of leaves. As she settles into her new home I look forward to many more years of blooms to come.We went to Monte Sano park this afternoon because it was such a beautiful day. We haven't been back there since last fall when we went up to see the colors. The fall color has just started to pick up some, but we still have a few weeks to go before it peaks out.
There were a couple of vivid trees, but overall it is mostly greens.
We let Quickbeam down so that she could walk around some, since she is walking on her own now. She did pretty good except she wanted to keep picking up rocks and eating them. It was an amazing day - warm, bright and sunny, fall colors. We won't be having too many more of them before winter hits.
I wasn't expecting anything from my Japanese Anemone this fall since I only planted it a little over a month ago. It did get a bud that sat there stubbornly for two weeks or so before it started to open. I have been waiting and waiting for it to open all the way but this seems to be as far as it is willing to go. Frustrating plants. ;) I have covered it through the frosts earlier this week in hopes that it will finish opening but it doesn't look like that is meant to be. Oh well, there's always next year. :)
There is a small nursery that I pass on my way to work every morning. It took me a while before I finally stopped by, mostly because small nurseries usually don't have that much to see. This one proved to be an exception. I found several good steppable plants at the beginning and kept meaning to go back with my camera. You know what they say, better late than never. :)
They have a pretty goo.d collection of succulents, which I may have to revisit when I redo my succulent bird feeder next year.
There are still quite a few plants that are blooming, and among them I found...
My beloved 'Bishop of Llandoff' dahlia. I had just planted one in North Carolina before we moved and it broke my heart to leave it behind. Can you believe that I didn't walk out with one? Believe me, I regret it now. ;)
See who I found at home amongst the plants?
And finally, more evidence that fall is finally here. :) Happy Green Thumb Sunday!
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We went to my favorite lunchtime getaway today to take some pictures for my book. The Catbird Seat is a nursery that is only a few miles away from my work. I have a whole bunch of pictures to post for Green Thumb Sunday tomorrow but today I thought I'd focus on this. My grandpa loved owls and collected anything that he could find with an owl on it. He was also an avid gardener though he was mostly into vegetables. When I saw this owl statue I had to have it to put out in my garden so that I could think of him when I saw it.
It rained really hard for most of the morning today. I got soaked going out for lunchtime, and was generally sleepy all day from the gloomy light coming in from outside. It is a good thing it rained of course, because we are still behind in rainfall for the year. I truly like it when it rains, but I'd rather be at home and not needing to go out when it happens. I like especially being able to take naps on rainy days, because there isn't much that makes me sleepier. It also feels so cozy being inside my warm house when it's cold and rainy outside. If I can put on a pot of soup I feel even better. :)
It has been chilly and dark for the last few mornings that I have left for work. I get to see the moon rising over the cotton fields, and the dew on the grass. There is a slight change in coloration on the mountains as I go home in the evenings. I can't wait for fires in the fireplace, hot chocolate and wrapping up on the couch to read. I also love bonfires outside, roasting marshmallows and making big pots of chili. My 'Arabian Nights' Dahlia is still faithfully plugging away and has flowers on it. I hope that I do a better job next year of keeping up with all of the happenings going on in my garden, this year has been too exhausting. On the brighter side, when I fed the fish tonight, look what happened:
I'm at a fairly restless stage in the garden. I've taken pictures of my existing plants about fifty times each. I do have a Japanese Anemone (shown above) in the front that has a bud on it, and I've been waiting on the edge of my seat for it to open. Otherwise everything feels like more of the same. I am very blessed to still have roses everywhere, and other plants blooming, but it feels repetitive to take pictures of the same plants with minor differences in shading and conformation. So here is my 'Southern Charm' verbascum which hasn't been featured too often.
And though I've posted tons of pictures of it so far this year, Joseph's Coat is still going crazy.
While I was out weeding in the garden today I noticed the neat reflections of the papyrus and palm umbrella in the pond. It's a glorious fall day today, complete with clear blue sky, bright sun and a slightly cool breeze blowing. Notice though what isn't in the picture of my pond. That's right, FISH. I have a 30 gallon pond and four pretty good sized goldfish in it. I almost never see them...maybe a flash of white every now and then. It frustrates me, because in my pond I had before the fish would swarm up at feeding time and I loved to see them, as shown below. 
We passed by Home Depot today to get some replacement air filters for our furnace. Of course I had to look at the plants on clearance for the end of year sale. I ended up picking out this Yarrow plant. I thought that the color on it was absolutely beautiful and can't wait to see it bloom for reals next year. We also passed through Across the Pond to get some fish food. For some reason Home Depot seems to have about everything else that you would need for a pond EXCEPT fish food. Since my boys were out we had to make a special trip.
One of the most easily recognized weeds that I know of is Poke Salad. It grows across the Southeast, although I don't know the rest of its range. I had Quickbeam out for a walk yesterday as it was starting to get dark. The road that leads into our subdivision deadends into a weedy birm leading in to the cotton field. I noticed that I could actually tell what quite a few of them were and took this picture which only shows the outline. We used to eat fried poke stalks and poke greens when I was growing up. Birds would eat their dark purple berries and then leave very vivid evidence all over cars and clothes on the line. I don't think I've had any poke since I left home as a teenager, but it brought back a lot of memories to see the plant.
Today was another beautiful autumn day. The sky is bright blue and there are puffy white clouds everywhere. The seedhead for my Joe Pye Weed is featured above. A shot of the treeline in the backyard is featured below.
So today I pulled out the lily and gave it a very big haircut. I also got rid of the bamboo spout because it hasn't worked very well and keeps getting plugged up. So I took the hose and tucked it under the rocks so it can spit directly into the water. The whole pond thing is going to have to get retooled next year so I'm not going to try for anything more elaborate right now. I do love the look of the alyssum spilling over the side.
The field behind my house is a great place to get pictures of sunsets. Last night we went out for our evening walk and the sun was starting to set. The clouds were dark grey but had tinges of rose color on them and it was beautiful. As I was going through the opening in the fence I remembered that I am in the South and looked down for snakes. As if to reward my diligence there was a very small snake that slithered off into the weeds on the side of the path. 
We're hoping against hope that it stays undeveloped. They had cotton planted for the last two years but left it fallow this year. They might be just letting it rest, but I've heard rumors that it was sold and if so they are probably going to develop it. So I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts.
I took my daughter out for a stroll this afternoon and brought along the camera as usual. As soon as we stepped out on the front doorstep I heard the heavy buzzing of bees. They were all over the bushes in the front of the house. I caught this one frequenting my Elle rose and this one with my mum.
I have been faithfully checking the toad lily every time I walk out the front door. Finally today it has opened up and the reward is well worth the wait. I have been looking around trying to find the plant tag or receipt from when I planted it so that I would know the variety, but alas it has been lost in the clutter of both my house and my e-mail in-box. But as they say, a rose by any other name...
I was out poking around my flower beds tonight and found this Gingersnap rose bloom. It appears to have a double bud on one flower. Looks pretty neat. :)