Autumn Activities

I love this weather. Love it! The brisk mornings and hot afternoons are very satisfying to my senses. Now the painting is done I've turned to the yard in hopes of getting a few things done before the weather turns again. I've been seeking a birdbath, and finally I found one that pleases me. And I got it 10% off, because of a small chip it has on it's facade. It's stone, but is glazed so that it almost looks like metal that has aged so much that it has a dark rich patina to it. I love it. It looks distant and naked in this picture, but as I plant more and the yard grows over the years it will be more at home. The birds haven't discovered it yet, but I hear a Water Wiggler will do the trick.


After long thought about what to do about our dustbowl of a back yard "lawn" I decided to overseed it with this stuff called Enriolawn which is a mixture of hard fescue and drought tolerant perennial ground covers like clover. Supposedly once established you only have to water it a couple of times a month in the summer. We'll see how it goes.

Boy was it hard work! I thatched the lawn first (though I probably shoulda rotatilled it and started from scratch), then spread the seed, then mulched it with peat moss. The rich brown of the peat moss is actually a rather nice change from the hay-yellow. There is enough seed left over to overseed the front yard. We are ripping it out next year, but in the meantime this hopefully will green it up a little.

Speaking of the front yard, I also started working on removing the tan bark, turning the soil and planting in our flower bed. I got about half done with one of the big beds. More very hard work.

The part I did looks SO much better!! (forgive the shakiness of the picture, it was almost dark). I planted Lantana, Lavendar, Rosemary, Wormwood and Dwarf Periwinkle. All of which is drought tolerant. I also planted a good number of bulbs. I have a good many more to plant! I already look forward to their appearance in Spring.

I had planned to do some canning this weekend...namely apples, which are falling off the tree and the dogs are enjoying all the spoils. But I never got around to it. Maybe this week or next weekend I shall get to it. And the persimmons are looking very close to ready.



On other fronts, I finally got around to installing this light fixture which I've been carrying around with me for about 8 years. I bought it when I painted a bedroom in a rental house those many moons ago, but didn't have the heart to install it in someone elses house. It really was too small for a bedroom anyways. So DH kindly installed it for me in the hallway. Why this picture flipped sideways when I posted it is a mystery, but it does little to impact the prettiness of the fixture itself.

So anyhoo...the next couple of weeks will be taken up with finishing my fall gardening, and starting to work on our bedroom! I've already ripped out the baseboard (DH was groaning), washed the ceiling and about half the walls. I also have moved most of the furniture out. I did all that a couple of weeks ago, but now I'm ready to get moving. We'll finish washing it tonight and perhaps start priming over the next several weeknights.

Busy Busy Busy!