Cruising the yard this afternoon

This is my stroll around the yard this afternoon.  Or "cruising" as I like to call it.  Late afternoon sun creates interesting shadows.  It's cool enough now for a light jacket in the mornings but the afternoons are just perfect.  I was very comfortable in my t-shirt!  

I went to the nursery yesterday and came home with pansies galore.  I put them in their pots today.  I pulled up the caladiums that I have enjoyed all summer and will try to save their bulbs for next year in the basement.

This is a black elephant ear.  Not the full black ones but as you can see, green and black

I love the sun coming through this one

My version of a bottle tree.  Slumped little jars hung with fishing line.

A white wood aster,  These are native and come up all over the place in the yard and in the woods.

One pot of my pansies and something new this year, swiss chard!

My hydrangea is still putting on  blooms

I love the look of the old blooms and they dry nicely for arrangements.

Wait for it!

Wait for it!

There you go!  These are garden orbs I had in my Etsy shop but decided they needed to live in my yard!

So I hope enjoyed the tour.  The yard will be winding down soon but we haven't had frost yet.  Probably before Halloween.  Oh, that will be another coming post.  Halloween decorations!

Autumn happenings in my garden

These are last of the garden pictures for the season.  It was a beautiful Autumn.  The dogwoods and crepe myrtles were spectacular this year.  The sourwoods and sassafras were gorgeous red and orange, Even the forsythia put on a show.  Most of the leaves have fallen now so I'll wait patiently through the winter, looking at garden catalogs and dream of next years garden.  I do want to try to have some tomato plants next year.  If you've been following, you know I battled the deer with sprays, hot peppers and chili powder, wind chimes, cages.  Nothing would stop them.  I learned from a neighbor that she used ivory soap cut up in chunks around hers and that worked. So next time, I'll give that a try.  

Red orange sassafras trees

Forsythia will turn this pretty purple the more sun it gets in the fall.  Talk about a southern staple.  It grows everywhere and doesn't need anything.  Just cut it back occasionally if it gets too big.  Pretty bell shaped yellow flowers in the spring, a carefree, open shrub in the summer and then this lovely purple in the fall. What's not to love?

Heading around the curve in the driveway and this sugar maple greets me

Crepe myrtles line one side of the driveway

This is an azalea.  No, really!  It blooms in the spring, off and on in the summer and then this show in the fall

Some garden mums in a pinky purple.  There'a a little bee taking a nap in this one.

October is here!

Oak leaf night light

October is one of my favorite months.  After a long, hot Summer, the coolness is sooo welcome.  The leaves have started changing and the days dawn cool and crisp.  This also starts the flurry of happenings in my family.  Starting off with my son's birthday, it's birthdays, anniversary and holidays non-stop til the end of the year.  I'm constantly busy in the kitchen cooking or baking.  But I love to do it and my family appreciates all I do.

Maple leaf night light

These night lights are some of the things I like to make out of clay.  I have a huge selection of cookie cutters and use them to cut out these shapes.  When I first started collecting them I had no idea that I would eventually use them for clay work.  The ones that get used for clay aren't used for cookies, anymore! But I remember thinking, as I rolled out cookie dough, that I could do the same thing with the clay.  There are alot of the same techniques in baking  that are used in clay work.  From kneading, rolling out with a rolling pin, to pinching seams closed it all kind of goes together.  So I had practice before I even started playing in the clay.

Today is going to be a gardening kind of day.  After good rain last week, the plants are calling to me.  Now is when I start moving things around in the garden.  Plants that have out grown their space and need to be divided or ones that just didn't do well in one spot need to go to another.  We say that it's not really planted until it's been moved 2 or 3 times!  I do love to get my hands in the dirt.

Lidded jar or salt cellar

This little jar is so cute.  I glued a rock(collected on a walk somewhere)onto the lid for a knob.  I love making little jars.  They are so handy to have around for all kinds of things in the kitchen, bathroom or on my desk.