Dying Perennials Have Value

I am deriving much pleasure from the dying perennial gardens this year.

I usually have most of it cut down by now, but this year I have done very little clean up.

I think my procrastination paid off! I enjoy taking a peek every time I walk by my bedroom window (it's the only place inside the house where I can see these gardens).

I had quite a few neighbors ask me what the flowers were in this new  roadside garden this year.

Most of my neighbors were not familiar with growing dahlias.  They all wanted them until I mentioned that they had to be dug out of the ground every fall. Suddenly they were all happy just to admire mine as they took their nightly walks down the road.  It is  a pain to do, so I was thrilled to pull into the garage after work and see 4 boxes like this:

Yes, my sweet husband dug them all out today and set them in the garage. Tomorrow he will hose off all the soil and let them dry out a bit before storing them for the winter.

Hope you are all enjoying the month of October in your part of the world.

Breaking the Mold....

and going for gold!

For the past few years I have purchased only white sheets.  I like the crisp clean look and feel of white sheets. When I decided it was time for a new set, they did not have white so I chose "honey".  The picture looked more like a light tan, so I was pretty shocked to see that the color was really gold when I opened the box.

I washed them and put them on the bed today with a heavier green/gold quilt.

It's not the clean, crisp look, but they do go with this quilt. The darker color feels more like autumn.

We will sleep on them tonight for the first time. I think they will be just fine.



DH and I have been busy all weekend bringing the outside tables/chairs/garden birdhouses, milkcans, watering cans and other assorted objects inside.  It is so much work!

We wash them all and then let them dry before hauling them to their various winter homes.

I have not yet cut down the deck plants because even though we have had a lot of frost, they have not been hit.  They are quite sheltered by the house and big trees overhanging the deck.  The plants also need to dry out before they get stored away.  Last week we had a lot of rain and they are still very wet.  That actually worked out well because DH and I are not as young as we used to be and we were quite pooped after two days of just removing these items and hauling them to the basement or to the under-the- house crawl space.  The tables/chairs, etc.  are now all stored away so it will be much easier just to do the plants in a couple of weeks.  We have always done it all in one weekend--what happened to the days when we could work eight to ten hours straight with just a break or two in between?  Those days are gone for sure.

While we were making room in the basement for the glass deck table, I came across a partridge (? some kind of bird) flower vase and decided to bring it upstairs.  I went to the deck and cut down 3 dahlias and some sage............yes, sage! The sage still looks great in my herb pot.  Sadly I did not even use it once this year.  I intended to make chicken saltimbocca with it, but that never happened.

So instead of eating the sage,  I used  it to make an aromatic flower arrangement.

So easy and so cute....I will enjoy these flowers every time I am in the kitchen.  I rub the sage between my fingers to release its fragrance.  Too bad our Thanksgiving is not until late November. The sage would be great in the dressing.

I did not accomplish any major tasks on my blog break. I did a little bit of a lot of things.....a little garden work, a little cleaning, a little organizing, a little cooking (lasagna soup and stuffed chicken florentine),

and a little sewing.

I now have three quilt fairy godmothers...


I do love making these ladies. I have no idea yet what I will end up doing with them. I love the scissors necklace on the newest one. 

I also bought a new pair of shoes this weekend.

I needed  (at least that is what I told DH when he rolled his eyes as I dropped these in the shopping cart) a pair of brown shoes and I really love these backless slip-on styles.

I have been reading blogs all week and I am really having a problem commenting on many of them.  I keep getting this error...

It causes my comment to disappear.  Is anyone else getting this all of a sudden?  I am trying to remember if I changed any of my settings recently to cause this. If you know what causes it, please leave me a comment. It is very frustrating!! I have tried 3 or 4 times on some blogs and I just can't leave a comment....on other blogs, I have no problem.