Happy Fall! As of 10:49 AM on Saturday it is officially my favorite season of the year. It seems as though Mother Nature flipped a switch this week, and all of a sudden we have much cooler days, the trees have started to turn, and the crops are starting to turn brown. There’s a slight nip in the air at night, and the sky is a crisp blue.
This isn’t really a post about the meadow, but it is all about the outdoors around my house.
Pot Mums
Mr. Lucky surprised me with some Pot Mums the other night. We’re going to stretch it just a little bit and say that they were an anniversary present (since both of us sort of forgot). They really do look just like they do in this picture- bright and colorful. I plan on finding a spot for them in the meadow, towards the edge I think, and hope that they come back next year.
One thing I love about my lot of land, is that I can just walk around and see all sorts of things going on. The salvia in front is still a monster, and I love finding bees on it.
Bee on Salvia
I chose this shot to share because you can really see the pollen sac on the leg of the bee. I really want to propogate this particular plant, but I’m also really nervous because I don’t want to do anything that might kill it. I’ve already lost two of them, and I would be heartbroken to lose this one.
I did successfully propogate another variety of salvia however, given to me by one of my friends. Together we took a fair number of clippings, but only one survived out of the entire bunch. It has grown quite nicely though, and took me by surprise.
New Salvia
The mums I planted two years ago are doing well again- they came back for the second year in a row! I’m happily surprised that they keep coming back on their own with absolutely no help from me. They too are becoming quite monstrous. I wonder if there is anything I should be doing to make them look better though. In particular, when should I remove the dead stems? Should I deadhead the plant?
Monster Mum
Walking around the back of the house, I noticed I was being watched.
Being Watched
There’s a pretty white cat with a raccoon colored tail who frequents our meadow. If I move too fast or too closely to the meadow, it will take off. It pleases me to know that this animal is taking some pleasure from our meadow.
Untouched Photo
And just because it was such a gorgeous day, I took this picture and didn’t do anything to it except add the watermark. You can see where the scrub pines aren’t looking so good. The one closest to the center lost it’s top in the bad storms we had a while back.
Here’s a peek at a project that I’ll be working on in the house for the next several months:
Project Door
Yes I am painting all the doors in the house. None of them were painted when we bought the house, and as I’ve been painting rooms, I try to paint the doors and trim in the room as well. However, for most of the first floor, I had the house painted before we moved in, and I did not pay for the trim work sooooo…. I will slowly take one door off at a time, paint two light coats of bright white high gloss paint, and put them back. My total tally of doors to paint: 22. Actually painted to date: 6. And 5 of those doors were painted ages ago, *Sigh. This will take some time. But hey, at least it’s pretty easy to do and it will look great.
