Winter Creeps In

Subtitled: Conversation with a Recorded Voice

Yesterday, trying to place an order for Christmas, I had a “conversation” with a prerecorded voice. You know those voices you hear at the other end of the line telling you this call is very important to them, and it may be recorded for “whatever purposes”, blah, blah, blah?

It went like this, after the initial intro:

If you’d like to place an order, say, “order”.

If you’d like to speak to Customer Care, say, “Customer Care”.

I said, “Order”.

The Voice said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t catch that, would you mind repeating it?”

Now this is funny!

My hearing is less than perfect (perhaps a slight understatement), and I’ve made that same request so many times to people at the other end of the line. Here, now, was an automated voice saying it to me!

I repeated, “Order”.

I should note that my voice is very low at the moment because I’m still recovering from a humdinger of a cold, but I said the word loud and clear both times.

The Voice said, “I’m sorry, but I still didn’t catch that”.

OK. What next?

Before I could react The Voice continued, “Please stay on the line and Customer Care will be with you as soon as possible”.


Frustration!

The Voice: “We are experiencing longer waits than usual. Your call will be answered as soon as the next assistant in Customer Care is available. Your call is very important to us, etc., etc. ……..”

At this point I hung up and placed the order using my computer. No hard-of-hearing, non-human voices to contend with. Short and sweet.

As you can see by the above photos, winter is creeping in.

The gardens are wearing a light covering of snow.
Jasmine and Hannah spend a lot of time sleeping on the back of the couch.
Molly sits among the plants and watches the birds, when she's not sleeping.
A red squirrel routes around in the snow under the birdfeeders. We see so few squirrels that we always consider it a treat when one shows up. Be careful out there, Squirrel!
Chickadees and other birds delight us with their boundless energy.
We feel like to snoozing away the days like Hannah and the rest of the crew, but there's much to be done in preparation for the Christmas celebration.

Hibernation will have to wait.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Garden Meditations

by Max Coots

Let us give thanks for a bounty of people.

For children who are our second planting, and though they

grow like weeds and the wind too soon blows them away, may

they forgive us our cultivation and fondly remember where

their roots are.

Let us give thanks:

For generous friends...with hearts...and smiles as bright as their blossoms;

For feisty friends, as tart as apples;

For continuous friends, who, like scallions and cucumbers,

keep reminding us that we've had them;

For crotchety friends, sour as rhubarb and as indestructible;

For handsome friends, who are as gorgeous as eggplants and

as elegant as a row of corn, and the others, as plain as

potatoes and so good for you;

For funny friends, who are as silly as Brussels sprouts and
as amusing as Jerusalem artichokes;

And serious friends as unpretentious as cabbages, as subtle

as summer squash, as persistent as parsley, as delightful as

dill, as endless as zucchini and who, like parsnips, can be

counted on to see you through the winter;

 

For old friends, nodding like sunflowers in the evening-time,

and young friends coming on as fast as radishes;

For loving friends, who wind around us like tendrils and hold

us, despite our blights, wilts and witherings;

And finally, for those friends now gone, like gardens past

that have been harvested, but who fed us in their times that

we might have life thereafter.

For all these we give thanks.

I'm thankful for all my dear blogging friends, and appreciate each and every comment you leave. Thanks so much for stopping by. I love hearing from you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Photos are of my Zygo Cacti, aka Christmas or Thanksgiving Cactus.
 
Thanks to Susan of Patchwork Reflections for sending me this lovely poem.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - November '09

Our weekend was spent away, visiting our son and DIL to celebrate our oldest grandson's 8th birthday. It's hard to believe he's 8 years old already. Doesn't time fly by?
Consequently, my Bloom Day post is a day late (again).


Our yard and garden are strewn with fallen leaves and colored in greens and browns, but  a very close look reveals glimpses of color where a few hardy plants are still braving the elements. I'm happy to say that we've had some glorious Indian Summer-like days with mild temperatures and abundant sunshine. Not all, mind you, but a few lovely days in between the colder ones. This has encouraged me to get outside and plant Tulip and Hyacinth bulbs. I still have a few tulips left to plant, but it's a good feeling to almost have that job completed. One more to cross off the list!

This Clouded Sulphur butterfly flitted happily in the brilliant sunshine on a recent warm afternoon and found sustenance in the Verbena Homestead Purple, which blooms on in spite of the heavy frosts.

Anemone de caen (Dutch Windflower) is still opening blooms. Do you see the little honey bee on the leaf below the flowers?

He was warming up in the early morning sunshine.

The pink Abutilon is blooming profusely. I took it and the orange one outside to soak up some bright rays on one of the glorious days.

Georgous blooms, aren't they?

The Abutilon "Gold Dust" has grown very large this past summer. That's Molly supervising the photo shoot.

It's easy to see where the name comes from. Those variegated leaves are so pretty.

The "Anthony Waterer" Spirea in the Pink Garden still shows beautiful fall color, and Lamium blooms on at its feet. The Key Lime Pie Heuchera adds its lovely chartreuse to the mix.

The frosty mornings are still providing some good opportunities for close-ups.

Here's the Spirea.

Frosty Lamium

and a few last blooms on the Obedient plant (Physostegia Virginiana).

Euphorbia

"Cerise Queen" Achillea (Yarrow) is another plant that continues to produce blooms in the cold weather.

Lamium and Verbena Homestead Purple in the Rose/Clematis Garden.

White Alyssum blooms on amid the Verbena.

Several things are blooming indoors. Most of the Ivy Geraniums are still hanging on the covered side porch. This one is "Marimba". They'll be moved to the cool upstairs bedroom windows soon.

I'm loving these Angelwing Begonia blooms.

I'm pleased with the red Christmas Cactus which was purchased last year. The pretty flowers are  beginning to open, and there are lots of buds to look forward to. I fed it all summer.

A friend gave me cuttings of this white one. There's pink in the flowers as well when they open.

My dear hubby added lights to the plant shelves he built for me last winter. The Columnea (middle of top shelf) is producing a few bright orange blooms. Numerous overwintering Wax Begonias are blooming a little and one lovely purple African Violet (not shown).

Some of my containers are still housed in the garage, but sometimes I carry a few out to soak up the sun's warmth and light. I can't bear to throw away plants that are still blooming so nicely. Some of the plants will go into the cellar to overwinter. Hubby has lights and tables set up to accommodate these. Murphy (the self-appointed head barn cat) is the "cat of the moment" here.

The yellow Chrysanthemum is still blooming, although the blooms are beginning to fade. The buds were still closed when I bought it and I've never before had a potted Mum whose blooms lasted as well as this one.
Hannah was sniffing the blooms and I ran for the camera, but I missed the moment. She's a cat who loves to stop and smell the flowers. For those who have asked, yes, she and Molly are sisters and look so much alike that it's hard to tell them apart unless you know them well. But they are quite different in personality.


If you'd like to see what's  blooming around the world, stop by Carol's May Dreams Gardens, and join in with your own bloom post if you care to.


Happy November everyone!

October in the Garden

October is a month of radical change in our upstate NY garden. If we've been lucky enough to avoid a killing frost, there's quite a nice variety of plants still blooming during the first half of the month.
Our first damaging frost zapped the Dahlias and several other plants a few days before Bloom Day in the middle of the month, but a few of the hardier plants held on for a while afterward.
Even though I dread seeing the frost come, it can create a magic of its own.

It put a ruffled lacy edge on the blue bells of dwarf Campanula, seen here with white Alyssum,

sugar-coated the snapdragons,

Obedient Plant/False Dragonhead (physostegia Virginiana), which is still blooming,

Lamium (also still blooming),

.....and Wax Begonias.

A few honeybees have been spotted, still at work on the petunias earlier in the month,

And this little fellow on the Anemone de caen/Dutch Windflowers last Sunday.

Verbena "Homestead Purple" continues to bloom.

This is one plant I never want to be without. I usually find a few self-sown seedlings in the spring, and I also buy new plants in six packs at a local nursery.

I recorded my last sighting of a Juvenile Ruby Throated Hummingbird on September 23rd and couldn't resist putting its picture in this post. I'm completely amazed at their uncanny ability to find their own way on the long journey south, leaving a week or two after their parents. Nature is extraordinary!

Just before that frost we still had beautiful Dahlias blooming. This one is Eveline.

And here's Park Princess.

The multiple flowers of Bonny Blue in the New Rock Garden were covered in bees on this sunny day.

And a Monarch enjoyed the flowers of the still blooming Phlox.

The seeds for this Castor Bean plant were given to me by my friend, Marie, who generously passes along so many interesting plants and seeds. If I'd managed to plant it earlier it would've grown much bigger, but it grew quickly once in the ground and I loved those gorgeous big leaves. I hope to do better with it next year. You can see that there were still a few blooms on the Butterfly Bush during the first part of the month too.

Here's that same spot after the hard frost.

And the Clematis in the Lily Garden which blessed us with such late blooms this year.

Hannah explores near the Hydrangea Limelight, its lovely blooms now browned by the frost.

And look what she saw outside on the morning of October 16th!

Here's the view out the back door, looking across the snow-topped Cosmos to the Pink Garden.

That Friday actually turned into a beautiful day when the sun came out about mid-morning and melted the snow away very quickly. It was one of the few lovely sunny days we've had this fall.

Lately though, we've enjoyed a few more beautiful days, although they've been interspersed with some very wet days. Yesterday we had an inch and three quarters of rain, and an inch and a half last Friday night and Saturday.
In the photo above, taken last Sunday (October 25th), the Spirea glows in its autumn colors, while Lamium and Obedient Plant (on the left) are still blooming bravely, even after being cloaked with snow.

The Obedient Plant is past its glory stage, but still pretty. This is a real bee magnet.

If you click to enlarge this photo you can see it behind Tink and Isabelle, who were keeping me company on that cloudy afternoon.

Here's the New Rock Garden, still brimming with color near the beginning of the month. Dahlia Bonny Blue and Zinnias were putting on a wonderful show, amid other pretty annuals.

But that hard frost zapped the Dahlias, Zinnias and Coleus, and damaged most of the other plants. Only the pansies were unphased, and are still blooming today.

The yellow mounds are Lemon Gem Marigold. It hung on for a day or two, but quickly faded. I've saved seeds for next year.

So sad to see the Zinnias go. They made such a bright, cheerful display. Do you see the Sunflowers behind them?

They are self-sown from bird seed. Sprouting later than the earlier "volunteers", they gave us a lovely splash of late color, and now the birds are enjoying their seeds.

Sedum Autumn Joy kept its color well into the month. This photo was taken a week ago, on October 22nd. That Thursday won the prize for the most beautiful October day this year. The temperature reached a sunny 70ºF/21ºC. It was a glorious day to be outside in the garden!

Here's what the front yard looks like now.
I missed out on getting photos of the prettiest part of the Autumn because I kept waiting for a sunny day to take the camera out, when I wasn't working or running around doing other things. We've had a very busy month. Our fall foliage was rather disappointing this year, and most of the leaves fell quickly in the windy, rainy weather.

The red spot on the right is the dwarf Burning Bush.

These photos were taken last Sunday in the late afternoon light, hence those long shadows.

Green, gold and brown are the predominant colors now.

The large Silver Maple holds on to its leaves much later than the big old Sugar Maple in front of the house.

I think that little tree is a Sugar Maple too, but being much younger and healthier, it holds onto its leaves longer than the old one too.

And so the days dwindle down to a precious few.... and every opportunity is taken to soak up those glorious rays of warm sunshine, between the windy, rainy days, before Old Man Winter comes to stay.

I hope you're all enjoying whatever season you're in at the moment, be it fall or spring.