Where did October go?

How on earth can October almost be over?  Time has been just flying by.  It seems that just doing the regular day to day things have taken so much time that I have little time left for blogging.  Every so often I get a chance to visit a blog or two, but not as many as I'd like.  When I realized that the month is almost over I couldn't believe it.  We've had mostly beautiful fall weather and every chance I get I run out to do a little cleaning up or planting.  Yesterday the Littlest Gardener and I spent a couple of hours cleaning up the front raised beds, emptying containers, cutting things back and even planted a few bulbs.  I just never know when the last of the sun will be and want to soak in every ray I can!

This is similar to the view out the kitchen window.  Washing dishes isn't so bad when you have something pretty to look at.  The Oakleaf Hydrangea with the Pennisetum in front is such a pretty combination.

A container on the deck is a galvanized bucket with holes drilled in the bottom.  It's hard to see in the picture, but this Kale has pink edges on the white leaves almost the same color as the Violas.

'Rozanne' just doesn't have any intention of slowing down.  I have three in my yard and they are all blooming still.

I did some cleanup around the pond yesterday, cutting back all the yellowed Hostas.  In this washtub I've got another Kale and Violas.

My American Beautyberry 'Profusion' grows low to the ground, maybe not quite enough sun?  It does have lots of berries though and has only been here a couple of years.

LOVE the purple berries.

The most gorgeous show going on around here are the Japanese Maples.  Someday I will walk up our short street to take pictures of everyones fall colored Japanese Maples.  It's so colorful on our street right now.  Our big Japanese Maple turns this pretty gold color before losing it's leaves.

The sun makes the leaves just glow!

I have to admit that my short bursts of time spent on the computer have been partially spent on Pinterest.  So many great ideas!  Here's one that the Littlest Gardener and I did yesterday.  It was very easy and aside from me melting some chocolate chips, the Littlest Gardener who just turned 5, was able to do some by herself.

Just take an unwrapped Hershey's Kiss and dip it into melted chocolate chips.  Then push it onto a Nutterbutter round cookie, take a chocolate chip and dip it into the melted chocolate and "glue" it onto the other side of the cookie.  We are calling them "haycorns" like Piglet does in Winnie the Pooh.  (I can't find the original source of this recipe, there are many variations on the internet, if you know where the original idea came from I would be happy to give them credit.)

Hope you are enjoying October, at least what's left of it!

All words and photos in this post are property of A Gardener in Progress.