Although I had no camera batteries on Sunday morning when we walked though the woods, I did get the camera recharged and then took a few snaps around my garden on Sunday afternoon, so I thought I’d show you those instead as they’re really pretty. I haven’t been very busy with cards since the weekend, so there’s no new projects to show you, but I did manage another 26 rows of my scarf last night so I was pleased with that!
But, back to my garden! I love it at this time of year and will start with my absolute favourite plant in the whole garden. This in one of a number of Asters that I have but it is by far the largest and most prolific flowerer of them all, it really is quite amazing as it’s over 4ft wide! It flowers like this every single year with no help whatsoever from me and will usually last well into November too! Isn’t it stunning?
The little fella is a dwarf Berberis, a rather plain green all year but then it develops into this rather stunning specimen in the Fall. It might look cute but let me tell you it’s covered in really vicious little thorns that will catch you unawares when you’re trying to prune around it in the Spring! It’s got me more than once!
This is a Euonymous, but I prefer it’s more common name of Burning Bush. Lives up to the moniker doesn’t it?? This has actually gone over a little bit, you can see there’s a lot of bare patches along its stems, it has probably dropped about 40% of its leaves already.
And a Witch Hazel. Sweetly scented little flower clusters appear on warm. mild days as early as February, followed by the most wonderful, tactile greeny grey, fuzzy leaves all summer, and finally it’s puts on it’s Fall coat and turns wonderful shades of green, gold and orange,
This is actually my neighbours Maple tree. It sits right where their garden ends and ours begins so we both benefit from this beautiful tree, although, due to the prevailing winds, it’s us who get to rake up it’s leaves each year!!! I don’t actually mind as we shred all the leaves we collect and use them as a winter mulch to help the garden survive the cold days ahead. In the Spring when the worms become active again, they pull all the leaf debris down into the soil, conditioning and feeding it as they go, so it’s a fantastic and free natural product.
I love the ornamental grasses at this time of year. They have so much structure and bring movement to the garden, they’re also very tactile and I can’t resist running their soft heads through my hands as I walk by. At this time of the year the morning dew glistens like jewels caught up in their feathery tips. We have quite a few different ornamental grasses in our garden, I wouldn’t be without them any where I garden.
This is a small Dogwood tree at the top of our driveway. It has beautiful, quite large, pale pink and cream flowers in Spring, sits quietly all Summer and then turns this stunning shade of red in the Autumn.
And finally for the garden tour, I thought I’d show you a Norwegian Maple on our boundary that we planted 10 years ago. It was just a tiny little whip of a tree and now it’s absolutely massive, it’s also, generally, still very green with only the slightest tinge of orange visible. It has a very sheltered position and therefore hangs on to it’s leaves much later than any other Maple in our immediate area, it’s going to be absolutely beautiful in a couple of weeks and I like how the season is a little bit staggered in our garden too. In the back garden we have a huge Cleveland Pear which hasn’t even begun to think about changing colour yet, that’s another treat for November for us to look forward too.
And with a bit of luck we’ll be able to go through the woods again this week after work and hopefully there’ll still be some colour left to show you. The problem with that is though, that we have to get through today and tomorrow and it’s looking downright nasty at the moment! About once every 20 or 30 years or so there’s this really weird weather front that gather momentum across the plains before heading in a North Eastern direction, and it’s happened this year. It’s been unseasonably warm across most of the Central and Upper Midwest of the USA since the weekend (remember we were at 71F on Sunday?) and that’s created a huge area of high pressure and right on it’s heels is a large cold front trying to push North. What this manages to create is incredibly unstable weather conditions. We have been under a severe weather warning since Sunday because of this and today we’re looking at what’s heading our way on the radar, severe thunderstorms and sustained high winds:
That storm cell is close to 600 miles long and is spawning, tornadoes, hail, flooding and high winds from Canada to Louisiana! We’re looking at this to hit us after lunch today and then leave us with sustained winds of 40 -45 mph and wind gusts of 60 – 65 mph for the next couple of days, as what you can’t see is all the cold air currently off to the left at the moment which is what’s driving this mega storm. So with a bit of luck I might be back this week with more beautiful photos of the trees, but on the other hand, I’m rather optimistically hoping that the trees that are left standing when all is said and done will still have some pretty little leaves left on their branches for us to enjoy!! Catch you on the upside, assuming of course that we have power!!