27 October 2014 - A Mother Nature Hissy Fit

The last two weeks have found me very busy in the yard starting to get it prepped for winter. Hoses rolled up and put away. Lawn furniture cleaned up and stored. Hammock and yard umbrellas taken down.  Compost piles turned over. Project supplies like paint all hauled to the basement. Mowing leaves up to start another compost pile. All the usual stuff. While I'm not quite done, I'm mostly done. It is a lot of work, but today I was very glad I've been keeping at it. 

Mother Nature had a meltdown today. It rained, hailed, snowed, rained some more. Then the sun came out and it rained and snowed while the sun was shining. Then gray skies and more rain. She finally quit spitting moisture at us and let the sun come out for the rest of the day, but it has been cold. I think we barely reached 45 after weeks of temps in the high 70s. Quite a shock to the system. On top of all that we have a hard freeze warning for tonight. That calls for one last trip to harvest tomatoes. None of the snow stuck, but the mountain tops have a layer of white frosting. 

I have been enjoying watching the color change in the yard. About half of the trees are still green. The rest have either turned gold or lost their leaves completely. Saturday's wind storm stripped many trees of their leaves. 

But here is the fun stuff.  I have Boston ivy growing on the front of my house. On the north side of the door, the entire plant is green. On the south side of the door, it has turned gold and red. Explain that to me. Mighty pretty, though.
 

Virginia Creeper is also trying to take over the yard and in addition to spreading over the ground, it likes to grow up trees. Currently I am letting it climb an ornamental plum because I like the way the gold leaves look against the deep purple of the plum. 


















 
These ping-pong size crabapples glow against their yellow foliage. I did not get around to making jelly this year, but the deer, squirrels and birds will quickly take care of the fruit. 

I didn't get any Mackintosh apples this year, but with all the trees that were taken out in order to build a new house next door, I suspect that  I should have a bumper crop with all the sun that will be pouring down on the apple tree going forward.

Why is it that just as container plantings become swoon-worthy, the frost shows up to take them out?  I moved most of my pots under the porch overhang hoping to enjoy them a little longer. 

 
The view towards Neff's canyon with the fall colors in front is always worth admiring.

I'm just hoping to enjoy the season a bit longer.