Wordless Wednesday

A red, white, and blue fall

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - September, 2016

Cool nights, rainy days.  What a change from a few weeks ago.  Fall is coming swiftly with leaves already changing color and dropping from their branches.  I've been a little remiss in taking photos lately, but here is what is happening in the garden.

The one potted plant I had this year with begonias and kalanchoe:

Now you sedum:

May Night salvia still blooming.  What a trooper!
Garlic chives feeding the bees, but those flowers need to be clipped before they drop seed

Grasses:

A coral Knock-out rose still blooming profusely, caught with the morning rain:

Berries on a high-bush cranberry viburnum:

Old-fashioned Hosta lancifolia:

Hosta 'Marilyn Monroe' (see her curves) just starting to bloom:

A late-blooming physostegia that was chewed up by that pesky rabbit.  I may just cut back of of mine next year to keep them bushy.

Bye for now.  See you in October.

Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting.  Visit her site and find other garden bloggers.

Wednesday Hodgepodge

I have not blogged all week for various reasons, mostly related to a hip issue which makes sitting at a computer uncomfortable.  It is getting better, but at my age it takes time for an injury to heal.  Heck, it took a long time even 20 years ago.

So, this week I have decided to participate in the Hodgepodge hosted by the blog From This Side of the Pond.  I really don't have to think too hard if someone else is asking the questions.

1. What's changed in your life, home, or community since your last birthday?  

Life is the same, home has an open view from the deck and the boy's old fort has new boards, and my local community leaders look to be worse in the future than the crazy bunch we already have.  Can I just pick up my home and lot and move?

2. September is Classical Music Month. Do you like/listen to classical music? If so what's a favorite piece and/or who is a favorite composer? 

I love classical music and would be hard pressed to pick one favorite piece, it all depends on my mood.  Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov, Elgar,... I could go on and on.

3. Besides The Bible, what's a book that has positively changed your life, relationships, career, or perspective? How so? 

The Bible?  Please.  I am not religious, so no influence there.  Reading 'Atlas Shrugged' when I started college made a huge difference for me and really got me thinking about my life and what I wanted to do with it.   I have the ability to reason and make decisions and no one is guiding me in my choices.  There is no spirit, good bad or otherwise, deciding my fate.  Whatever has happened, I can only blame myself - or thank friends and family for supporting me.

4. I read (here) these ten hobbies will make you smarter...play a musical instrument, read voraciously, meditate regularly, work out your brain (puzzles, sudoku, board games, etc), exercise often, learn a new language, write your feelings down (blog, journal, just write), travel to new places, cook different kinds of meals, participate in sports actively

Are any on this list your current hobbies? Which hobby on the list would you be most inclined to try?

I never played a musical instrument, though I always wanted to learn piano.  I studied voice for many years.  I do read voraciously and do the NYT crossword and several sudoku puzzles everyday.  I walk, do yoga and garden for exercise.  I used to speak French, passably, but haven't used in in years and wouldn't even try it again.  I burned all my journals years ago but I do write this blog.  I still travel as much as I can and I am still a recipe tester for America's Test Kitchen (I'll be trying a new recipe this week).  I no longer participate in any sports unless you count chasing Charlie around my house which has an open floor plan.  I won my letter in high school for softball and a game called 'speedaway'.  I was a bit of a tomboy.  And all of my back issues over the years were a result of a gymnastics tumble a gazillion years ago.

5. What sports traditions does your family have? 

None.  Unless you count having the Detroit Lions game on TV while we eat Thanksgiving dinner.

6. In a few words, weigh in on the current football/National Anthem brouhaha. Keep it family friendly please. 

If you want to make an a-- of yourself and be criticized, enter politics.

7. Where do you have loads of patience, and where do you most lack patience? 

I have patience with Charlie (my 2 year old grandson) who is the slowest eater in the entire world.  I have no patience with people who are just plain stupid and cannot understand simple directions.  Their IQs are perfectly normal, they are just dense for whatever reason.  I actually asked for a transfer in my first career when they brought in a new supervisor who was a friend, but who was impossible to teach anything to.  I transferred out for a year and then came back and took her job, which she was unable to do.

8. Insert your own random thought here. 

It's fall.  I see tons of stuff to be cleaned up in the yard.  Every year I say I have no projects, then I realize that the astilbe bed is getting crowded, the hydrangea is growing over the border, the bent grass from who knows where is invading my Kentucky blue and now I have a new project.  Well, at least it has cooled off and I can at least go outside and work.  As long as the muscle around my hip heals up.