Tonight I cut down the Rest of the Container Plants

Since my only Pineapple Lily bloom still looked good, I decided to bring it inside. I stuck it in an amber vase and put it in the middle of the candy dish I got last week  from my retired friend.


I dug up the few cannas I had planted in the ground and tossed them in a box in the garage to dry out.

Then, as much as it hurt me to do so,  I cut down my lovely Mandevilla vine.

I would really love to save this vine for next year. But I am not good at saving things inside through the winter. I would have to put it in the basement and remember to water it all through the winter....all the leaves will fall off and make an incredible mess....the plant will probably get some kind of bug....aphids or something........do I really want to do it? I cut it back and stuck it on the deck for now....

It already looks pathetic!  I will probably make a meager attempt to save it because it is not likely that I will be able to buy one next year.  In my small town we can never count on getting the same plants from year to year.

I will leave you tonight with a few fall color shots from my back yard.  
Standing on the deck:

 One of my burning bushes....they are the Grand Ladies of my fall color!

 Looking from the mandevilla vine just before I cut it down:

Looking from the dead hosta foliage in the milk can in the picture above:

Standing on the deck looking through the Buddelia.  Look how tiny the butterfly bush blooms are--just little purple nubs!:

Thank Goodness 10-10-10 comes only once a century

This shirt only begins to show you what a miserable day it was.

After 10 hours of taping and painting, Tuesday's manicure is pretty much shot.

What a thrill is was to pull this tape off!

The thrill only lasted a few minutes because then we had to start the dining room....more taping....more cutting in.....we were both totally exhausted and could not wait to fall into the freshly laundered bed last night (yes, in between the painting, I washed sheets and even my pillows! I saw on MSN where pillows should be laundered, so I did. They came out quite nice, but each pillow had to be in the dryer for more than 2 hours)

The good thing is that I like the paint color. It is exactly what I thought it would be.

I bought two new lamps. The base is a close match to the metal of the dining room chandy.

 But what I really liked is the rectangular shade. I am not sure where these will end up.

Do you remember these skeletons from my Halloween table last year?

I decided that this year I want to do a more elegant Halloween table in silver and black, so yesterday morning I also painted the skulls...and a few other things I may use on the table...


I took this wreath right from the deck lattice and painted it silver, too.

I plan to do a table this week--as soon as I get up on the ladder and touch up the ceiling/wall line of the green paint. Right now I am waiting for the window man to come and change out  a defective window. The poor man is working very late today.

Still Living in a Mess

Since we were gone for the past two weekends, we didn't get much inside painting done. It still looks like this:

Everything is very white because the new drywalled walls have all been primed with Kilz.

Yesterday I bought 2 gallons of the green paint, Recycled Glass, that I showed on the previous post.  Can you believe that I have not even looked in the can to see what the color really looks like?  I don't want to look because I am afraid it will scare me! I have told myself that no  matter how scary it looks in the beginning, I will follow through because it will look very different once I get furniture in the room. 

We are planning to spend the whole weekend working in the house, so it should all be done by Sunday night. I hope so because I want to do some Halloween decorating.  I made my "Boo" banner and these little wooden circles that I plan to glue to twine and drape over something--no idea what yet.

Doesn't this chocolate/caramel dessert look divine?  It is the only picture I took last weekend when we went to the Bruce Springsteen tribute.  It was very good--a rich melt-in-your-mouth dessert.

We had a frost this week which killed a lot of my plants, like the Creeping Jenny in this  milk can. 
On the inside of this arbor I had some Colchium that looked terrible this year. So I removed it and planted the Manhattan lilies that I bought last week. This should look very pretty next July with the huge pink 'Manhattan' blooms.


All the deck plants got hit hard. What a mess!

This is the area I showed you on the last post that was still looking good...NOT anymore!

I am hoping to get everything cut down over the weekend and put away for the winter.

I have been doing a bit (O.K. a LOT) of online clothes ordering this week.  Here are a few of the items I am waiting for:

Those round things are bracelets.  As you can see, I am still into the bright colors!

I hope you are all having a good week. Even though I have not been posting, I have been visiting a lot of you during the early morning hours.  Once I get all the work done around here, I will be back to regular posting.

Garden Musings & a Peek at my Weekend Wardrobe

My Eucomis (Pineapple Lily) ended up growing quite a bit since I showed it to you.

 The second one is still nothing, but I have read that it may take two years to get a flower, so I am now happier with this purchase than I was in the beginning.

Look at its cute little green hat.

Maybe someday it will look like this gorgeous specimen:
Unfortunately my back yard is not looking very good. I began noticing the big brown spots a few weeks ago.  Last week I mentioned it to DH
 and he said the grass is being killed by grubs. He went out and dug into the brown areas and, sure enough, there were grubs.

He needs to do something about it before the entire back yard grass is dead.

I cut down my favorite red  dahlias that were full of powdery mildew. Then I decided to separate them.

When I stuck the shovel in, I cracked the container. Darn! I like these lightweight resin containers because they are so much easier to haul up and down the deck steps, but they are not worth the $30 price. They break too easily.

This little area at the end of the deck still looks decent.

It is one of the few areas that does.

There is really nothing left to do with the deck containers, but wait until we get a hard frost and then put them all away for the winter. Right now it is too early to put them away because they will continue to grow until the temps are below freezing. I store them in a crawl space that is still very warm. I also think the frost kills critters that may be alive in the topsoil.

I am thinking that it will be about two more weeks before I put them into winter hibernation.

I was shocked earlier in the week when I looked out the kitchen window and saw my biggest arbor looked like it was falling down.  Turns out it's all rotted at the bottom.

I could almost cry just looking at this! I had to put that plastic pot under just to hold it up--so pathetic It's my favorite arbor and the main focal point of the arbor gardens. I hope DH can figure out how to make it last a few more years.

Last January our Exec. Housekeeper at the hotel retired. Today she invited me and our Food & Beverage Director to lunch at her home.
She made us a nice Mexican chicken wrap lunch and then sent us home with this platter of fall candy.

It was great to see her again. I have really missed her. She always kept me informed of everything happening around the hotel- since she left, I know none of the good gossip---and believe me, a LOT happens behind the scenes when you work in a place that has over 200 beds! :) 

I am getting packed for another weekend jaunt. I was doing laundry and picking out clothes before I decided to take a break and post.
I think this will be good to wear to work tomorrow with black pants--It's a bit loud, but I like bold clothing. It will also be a comfy travelling outfit since it resists wrinkles and  I will be leaving right after work. Can you see that creature's face at the top? It's a bracelet!

I've had it for about 25 years. Once in a while it's fun to wear--I have to be in the right mood.

I am in an orange mood--BRIGHT orange!  I love this navy blue and  orange ensemble. I will wear it with jeans--I don't wear jeans very often, but I can't do the dressier black pants that I like with this because it just screams Halloween!

 This one is a bit more toned down--I was thrilled to find this orange and green necklace that is a great match. 

We are going to another musical dinner show, just the two of us--a Bruce Springsteen tribute. I still have to pick out something to wear to that. I have my latest culinary murder mystery in the front seat of the car. I should be able to finish it during the six hours of driving time.

One of these weekends, I need to stay home or I will never get that painting done! Have I ever mentioned that I really hate to paint?

I hope you all have a great weekend. If you have nothing to do, you are all invited to come to my house and paint.

We have not made a Lot of Progress on the Homefront

About the only thing we completed since the contractor left is this little pantry. I love it all white and bright!

It is not even really complete because we want to buy and install a few more wall shelves.

The only time we have to work on the house is on the weekend and we went away this past weekend.  We took my parents and went to see an opera singer show that we have gone to for the past three years.  Life is too short to work all the time!

So the house is still a major mess.   While I was at work today DH primed a couple of the newly drywalled areas (bless his heart).

Now we need to paint the walls.  After work today, I had a haircut appointment. The shop happens to be very close to a Sherwin Williams store, so I went there after the hair cut to look for a green paint.  I left with a handful of samples.

O.K. I took one of every green they had! After getting home I quickly eliminated most of them, then studied the three top contenders.

I think I finally decided on the color for the living room, dining room and hallway...all the same color....it's SW Recycled Glass.

I taped the tiny little sample all over ... on my new chandelier.......

on the living room sofa and love seat which I wish I could replace, but it's still like brand new, so I am forced to work with it.

next to the beams in the living room.....

this color is more like the real color. The sample on the sofa is not quite the correct color.



against the pantry door and the new floor...........

I hope it won't be too dark in the hallway. I do like it against the white and the floor.

I just hate trying to pick a paint from these tiny samples.

Have any of you used Sherwin Williams Recycled Glass paint? I would LOVE some reviews before I go and buy it. I did google it and found a few rooms that I thought looked very nice.

It's such a big decision!

I was at Home Depot on the Right Day!

I have never been to HD when perennials/bulbs were marked down at end-of-season prices.

Yesterday we had to run there after work to get a bi-fold door handle. Just for kicks I walked through the garden department.

I spotted one shelf with closeout plants. I walked over for a closer inspection----Whoaa--JACKPOT!

The same Manhattan Lilies I just bought (with their spent blooms removed) were now $1.50/pot. I also grabbed some Silver Mound artemesia for the same low price. I bought a total of 10 containers.

As you can see from the pictures, we are having a very rainy day. It's actually been quite miserable all day today. . . a good day to have spent at work.

My contractor finished today. Before he left he did a project that is going to make my life so much easier next year. Look way back by the house....
You can't see anything new, but if I go back behind the shrub and snap a photo, you will be able to see what I am so excited about..............

A new water faucet! Finally I will be able to reach all of my gardens with a hose. Before I had to haul 100 feet of hose from the backyard and it still would only reach about half of the gardens. Maybe next year I can plant and water some of those areas where nothing will grow because I can't get water to the area. I can't wait for next summer!

Burning Bushes for the First Day of Fall

Euonymus alata "Compactus"

I love the Burning Bush. This shrub, which turns a scarlet red and bears little orange balls of fruit

in late autumn, is a highlight of the fall season. It is nearly maintenance free. I do prune back a few of my larger specimens to keep them at the height I want.

The only pest problems I have with this shrub are deer and rabbits who both love to eat the bark during the winter. Look at the damage this shrub had in 2005 when it was severely gnawed on by deer. I thought for sure it would die.

Here it is today:

As you can see, it rebounded quite nicely.

I moved this one in June and right now it is the reddest of them all.

This one back in the shady rockwall garden is just beginning to turn colors.

Here's another one in the front of the house by the road. It is in an area where nothing will grow.

It's alive, but certainly not thriving.

I must have 8 or 10 of these in different areas of my yard. I plan to get a few more for the Arbor gardens. I think one in front of the purple asters would give a nice jolt of color during September.

Some people find this shrub very invasive. For me, it is not. I am happy when I find a few shoots growing near the mother plant that I can dig up and plant elsewhere. How about you? Do you grow it? Love it or hate it?

My Blogger Stats tell me that this post I did about wrapping gifts to match the Christmas tree was my most read post this week. People are already searching for holiday ideas!