First Snow

Autumn and Winter danced this morning, with lacinato and purple kale chaperones.

September Pretties

It feels like Autumn right now — grey skies, blustery winds … fall clematis, nasturtiums and sedum in bloom. Here’s a little garden beauty to start your week:

Garden Update: September Beauty and Bounty

It seemed like Autumn was in the air for awhile, but we’re back in the 80’s. Meanwhile, a mixture of heavy rainstorms and scorching sunshine have the somewhat neglected garden producing well. I’ve harvested several golden beets, plus continued kale and chard. Radicchio has survived multiple groundhog and earwig attacks, and we’ve got some reseeded lettuce and cilantro popping up in the raised beds. It’s officially pesto season, and the zinnias know it’s September:

Also, we finally have some love-in-a-mist to keep the snapdragons company!

Perhaps the biggest news in the gardening world

Garden Update ~ Chilly Outside, Blooms Inside

We’re down to just kale, collards, lettuce and mums outside, but inside, we’ve got happy plants and the first blooms on a Christmas cactus.

 

Garden Update: Cat Naps, Fairy Crossing, and Shades of Fall

The magic continues at our new place. The wonderful neighborhood cat, who so successfully shooed away the groundhogs and scents the garden whenever bunny nibbles get too big, has taken to napping with me, just outside the sliding glass door. Whenever I decide to take a quick BioMat snooze in the back room, I usually find something like this:

or this:

Flowers in November: Some Beauty on a Gorgeous Day

Getting back to more of the garden variety garden posts, here are some flowers still blooming today, plus a bouquet I made David’s mom this past Saturday.

Zinnias:

Veronica:

Cosmos and sedum:

Mums and sweet alyssum:

Saturday’s bouquet with blackeyed Susan’s, lavender, cosmos, sedum, zinnias, yarrow, foxglove, and bachelor’s buttons. We’ve also got wild violets, snapdragons, calendula, nasturtiums, and more still smiling in the yard — at least until this coming Friday’s hard frost. I enjoy it while I can!

Blessed Be …

and be the blessing!

 

 

Autumn Beauty: Asters, Mums, Bouquets and Cocoa Spice Cake

Just a few pretties from the yard and kitchen:

On Friday, that bed above got an infusion of spring daffodils and giant hyacinths. Fortunately, an unusually late first frost has allowed the trough below to make up for its very late planting. We’ve enjoyed so much lettuce already, while the rest of the greens and mustard race the frost faeries.

Although the temperatures are back up again, a cool weekend encouraged this experimental cocoa spice cake with chocolate ganache from the delightful cookbook, Afro Vegan. This one uses coconut milk and mashed avocado for creaminess, and with cayenne, ginger and nutmeg, it was, indeed, spicy enough to delight some foodie friends and their other guests:

Bouquets abound:

And here you can see Sunday’s flowers with Saturday’s cake:

Wishing everyone a glorious week!