A Day with Mary and more...

Early morning...this is what I saw as I drove out of my yard to meet with Mary...

There is one small tree on our dirt road that always turns a bright red.

This is Star Lake in the middle of Belmont

It was a beautiful fall morning. I needed Jerusalem Artichoke flowers for the teachers' vases. I have some growing in my yard, but not enough. North of Rutland there are oodles of them growing alongside the road where the picking is easy, so Mary and I decided to make a day of it. After breakfast at Rosie's in Middlebury, we headed south to enjoy the little people cavorting around Brandon. Here are a few...

Pick a sport...he has them all...

Tied to a tree in the land of liberty!

Shall we dance?

It's not going to rain today...

This couple seem a bit tipsy...must have been a late night...

Yoo-hoo...

Surveillance cameras don't matter when you don't have a face...

Buddies...

Canada geese walking on water...

 Along with creative ideas and great scenery, we had a mission...

Cattails also work well in flower arrangements...

Just a few more...and then we'll see if I can get out of here!

Brilliant

And finally a stand of Jerusalem Artichoke along the edge of a farmer's field...

Most of the flowers I use in the teachers' vases come from my own yard, but it's fun to see what else I can find...

Jerusalem Artichoke, Autumn Joy sedum, and Queen Anne's Lace

Marigolds, red Asters, and pink Cosmos

More sedum, more Cosmos, and finally I'm using the cattails!

In between getting flowers to school each week and harvesting my vegetable gardens, I managed to spend a week at the cottage. Each day was a cleaning project, 2 to 3 hours of kayaking on Lake George, and evenings of Rummykub. The pugs wore their sweaters most of the time...

Bentley has the blacker face...he gets adopted next weekend. Jake's sweater is the same color as his fur.

A backyard tree

This is looking out my kitchen window. The clear roof is part of the pug pen. It lets in enough light for this houseplant to thrive.

Since I've used some of my black landscape fabric for the walkways between raised beds, I need to find more old rugs to completely cover the veggie garden in the field. Wherever it is covered, there won't be any weeds to worry about in the spring!

I am also putting the raised beds to bed for the winter. After pulling out the old plants and weeding, I cover them with layers of newspaper and lay plastic snow fencing on top to hold the newspaper in place. Then a few heavy items keep the fencing in place as well.

I'm writing this post near the end of October. I have finally gotten all the cabbage picked, but I still have beets and carrots to pull.

Jake and Bentley can enter the pug pen through a doggie door on the porch

Beets are still looking good. Most of the garden is covered. Grass is beginning to grow where it had been just dirt. Griff says there are lots of deer prints around the new ponds. He figures they find it easier to get to these than to the big pond.

The last of the cabbage is now in the refrigerator and 2 more beds have been covered. With a little luck, I'll even find time to harvest more of the Apple Mint. It makes a wonderful tea!

The Cosmos is putting on a show! I've brought the pumpkins up from the field, but some of them still need to turn orange.

On chilly evenings when the propane heater warms the tile floor, the pugs love soaking up that heat. Winter is coming...