Not too shabby for mid November!

Well, I finally accept the fact that winter is around the corner.  We had an amazingly beautiful fall right up until about week or so ago.  It seemed to have been making up for our less than amazing spring and summer.  But after a few frosts, we finally had a pretty good freeze last night with temperatures down in the mid 20's.  So, that means it's perfect weather to get up really early and go watch a soccer game!  Sweet Pea's soccer team played today, unfortunately they lost by one goal, but it was a great close game.  Her team ended up first in their league and second in their division, pretty exciting for her.  Anyway, a good thing about getting up that early on a weekend meant there was lots of the day left to get other things done.  Even though birdbaths were still frozen I decided to go out and do more  fall clean up.  There is still quite a bit more to do, but now I know I have to take advantage of the dry days, cold or not, to finish.  Once I get moving I forget about how cold it is anyway.

This planter just looks better and better.  I love how it's filling in.

A newer evergreen shrub in my garden, which is supposed to do well in the Pacific Northwest, is False Holly (Osmanthus heterophyllus) 'Goshiki'.

This Aster is one of the few things left blooming in the garden.  Wallflower, Erysimums and Daphne 'Summer Ice' are about it for now.

The shed garden looking pretty good for the middle of November.

There are still quite a few apples left on the tree.  I can't reach them and need to remember to have my husband get some down.  They have been so good this year.  I recently chopped some up to cook with a really good maple glazed pork tenderloin the other day.

I have filled many bags with leaves and pine needles from the path.  It gets so matted and wet that our dog won't go outside.

Sarcococca ruscifolia is already full of buds.  It blooms in late winter with the best smelling flowers.  It does great in dry shade and is evergreen, I love it.

The pond had a layer of ice on it this morning.  The fish are hiding at the bottom and there are still lots of leaves to scoop out.  The Water Hawthorn is just starting to bloom, it actually prefers the cooler weather and blooms into winter.

The window boxes outside our dining room window are doing great.  The Littlest Gardener chose the colors of Violas.  They are bright and cheerful!

Overall it's still looking pretty good outside, I do miss not seeing many flowers though.  

Hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving!  My sister and her family are driving from Idaho to join us,  we're excited to see them and hope they have a safe drive especially since it sounds like there are several storms predicted.

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

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.