Happy Thanksgiving ! .................

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. I've done some of the cooking today and will finish up tomorrow. Since it is so difficult to get my Dad out and about, we will have our dinner at his house. There will only be four of us - my brother, my dad, hubby, and me. I'm sure we will all be stuffed by 3:00 PM

Leaves and more leaves ...........

I apologize for not posting lately, but I just haven't had anything to post about. I lead a very dull and routine life - no drama, no excitement, no stress. I wouldn't want it any other way, but it does make it difficult to come up with interesting posts.



We got all the leaves up in the back yard two weeks ago and the ground is covered again. It's been like a blizzard of leaves coming down. Maggie May has had lots of fun chasing them all over the yard. Hubby will have a four day weekend, so I hope he will be able to get out with the leaf vacuum and get up all the leaves that have fallen so far.



We still haven't had a frost around the house. The rain and the few warmer days we've had have made some of my flowers make a comeback. The petunias in the pot in front of the garage look better than they have since spring.





My azaleas all have scattered blooms. My herb garden is growing and looks really good. I got a hand full of onions out of the garden and will probably pick some more collards tomorrow. I'm hoping we can keep the really cold weather away until January.

Camouflage ...............

Mazie Grace and Maggie May were so glad to see the sun today. They both went out early this morning and played in the back yard until I brought Maggie May back inside a few minutes ago. They chased each other through the leaves and had a jolly good time. They both seemed to blend in with the colors of the leaves.

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It was a gorgeous day - in the 70s and sunny! I spent as much time outside as I could. A welcome relief after our days of rain.

Fall foliage #5 .....................

These pictures were taken Monday before the remnants of hurricane Ida gave us four days of rain and wind. There are only a few leaves left on the tree today, but there is a bright orange carpet under the tree.

Rain and more rain ...............

It's been raining in Southside Virginia - and raining and raining. So far we have gotten a little over three inches. The forecast is for heavy rains through this evening along with strong winds.





There are flood warnings out for low areas and near streams and rivers. I live on a slight hill and have water sitting in my front yard.






It's too wet and windy to venture outside so Maggie May has been watching the rain through the window. She is waiting for it to stop so she can meow to go back outside.






Mazie Grace has curled up on my furry throw and says to wake her up when the rain stops. I've been snuggled up under a throw myself - reading "the Lost Symbol". We are a lazy bunch.

Fall chores ...................

We had a beautiful weekend - sunny and very warm. I had to take advantage of it by going outside and taking care of some fall yard chores.

We haven't had a frost yet, but it's time for one, so I decided to put the Norfolk Island Pine in the garage for the winter. I got this tree years ago as a Christmas decoration. It was only about a foot tall and was in a small pot. As it grew, I kept repotting it in larger and larger pots. It got too large for the house, so I would put it on the deck during the summer and in the garage during the winter. The pot is too heavy for me to carry off the deck and around to the lift up garage door, so I slide it across the deck and into the garage through the back door. As you can see in the picture, it has gotten so big it was a challenge to get it through the door. I had to tilt the pot and bend the top in order to get it through. It takes up a lot of room in the garage. It's sitting beside my treadmill, so when I work out, I feel like I'm walking in the woods.
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I got some weeding done while the ground is still moist, planted some tulip and daffodil bulbs, and cleaned up some flower beds. I also raked up pine needles under the trees by the road. Hubby got the leaf vacuum out and went over the yard for the first time, getting up all the leaves that had fallen.

I am sore tonight - probably from all that raking. I'll soak in a hot bath and take some Tylenol Arthritis before I go to bed.

Hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend

Mushrooms ........

We have had a lot of rain in the last couple of weeks - over 4 inches. Yesterday as I was walking across the back yard, I noticed lots of mushrooms had appeared.

The only thing I know about mushrooms is that some are poisonous. Therefore, I do not touch them and will only eat mushrooms bought at the grocery store. Some of them were unusual looking, so I ventured close enough to take a few pictures.