It's a Wrap...Almost

Where did summer go?!  It seems as though it was just getting started.  Fall is definitely here to stay with its crispy air.  Most of my gardens have been nipped into dormancy, and are waiting for me to properly settle them into hibernation.  I always have mixed emotions about fall.  I adore the colors and the smell in the air.  Yet I am saddened to think that for the next 6 months everything will be just so...naked.  But for now there are glorious displays of golds, oranges and bright reds waiting to be noticed around every new turn.

I took this picture of a Marmo maple (Acer freemanii) on November 11, 2008

And this one on October 27, 2009 of the same tree.  It's kind of hard to tell the difference!

My beautiful Japanese Whitespire Birch (Betula platyphylla japonica) in a riot of bright gold.  I took this on October 21, 2009 just before it started raining.  (Sorry about the blurring on some of the branches, it was quite windy when I took this!) It rained for 3 straight days and nights, with even more wind.  The show's over now for this tree, or rather it's been relocated, as 99% of its leaves are now scattered across my lawn.  It makes such a pretty carpet!

The Bidens (Bidens ferulifolia), and Lobelias (Lobelia erinus) are still holding their own.  Even though they've stopped producing new blooms, the foliage and existing blooms are still looking pretty fresh.

I've also got a few cute little Callie Rose (Calibrachoa) blooms hanging on.

I just happened to look down at the rocks along the edge of one of my flower beds as I was walking my yard.  It was just too perfect not to photograph; all of the colors were arranged better than I could have done myself!

My Crimson Pygmy Barberry (Barberis thunbergii'Atropurpurea nana') has begun to prepare for winter too.

I found this leaf stuck to one of my benches and thought it had a very interesting pattern.  Sort of makes you think of camouflage doesn't it?

And my snapdragons are among the season finalists every year.  I have no idea what variety they are, they didn't have any plant tags when I purchased them.  :(

They're so pretty, I just don't have the heart to cut them down.  They're really much brighter in person.  The blooms are so deep and bright that they almost hurt your eyes to look at them in the sun.  I've really had amazing luck with these guys.  This snapdragon basket was drowned nearly to death when we had flooding this past June.  The entire basket went completely limp within a few hours.  I brought it into my garage hoping that it would perk up.  Whenever the weather was dry, I optimistically set it back outside again.  Nothing doing, it stayed limp, the soil stayed soaked, and eventually the leaves got crispy, but stayed green.  I set it back outside again after a month, thinking that it was a goner.  It rained again (of course!), and you'll never believe it.  In a couple of days there were all of these miraculous, tiny leaf sets popping up all over the stems!  (I really wish I knew what variety they are!)  I cut away the stems that didn't show any new growth, and found that I had lost half of my basket.  The remaining half filled in so nicely, and the new growth was just as gorgeous as the original!  Snapdragons truly should be called a resurrection plant.  I am planning to clip the spent blooms from this plant once they freeze, and dry them out.  Next spring I'll plant them in hopes that these seeds will give me beautiful color for another year.  Cross your fingers for me...

~~Diana

An Unplanned Excursion

Sometimes just when you aren't planning to go anywhere, you find yourself aboard a jet heading out of town.  One of my brothers suffered a heart attack while vacationing with his wife in Florida.  They were visiting their daughter, and we thank God that they were there.  He didn't have just any old heart attack.  No.  He went all-out and had himself a ventricular tachycardia.  That's a bad one, and I learned that only 5% of the people who suffer this actually survive!  My SIL used to be a nurse, and my niece is a physician.  The only better place my brother could have been when it struck him, would have been the ER.  They literally saved his life.  Well, after just over a week, and a few bumps along the way, everything's just fine now and he's even been released from the hospital.  He's a real trooper, and has gone above and beyond what his medical team has asked of him.  I don't know which guardian angel watches over him, but he's got a good one!


I want to add that my brother is in excellent physical condition, eats very sensibly, and runs between 7 and 11 miles every day.  He has just had a complete physical and during that visit, his doctor told him that he was in such good condition that he did not need a stress test.  He was planning to enter a half-marathon in the next few weeks, and wanted to be completely checked out prior to running.  It looks as though he'll need to put that off for a little while.  Although one of the attending physicians did say that he should be able to begin running again in the next month or two. (!!!!!)  I think he needs to get a really good pair of running shoes for his guardian angel before he does anything like this.


I didn't take many photos while I was there.  Our time was spent at either my niece's house or the hospital, but I did see a couple of things that caught my eye while while I was there.  My mother and I flew to a location about a hundred miles from my niece's.  Sometimes airlines don't offer good flight times (or rates!) for smaller cities.  We rented a car and drove the rest of the way.


Along the way I spotted this vintage gas station sign that had a couple of gas pumps by it.  I wonder how much gas cost on the day these pumps were last used...

And then just past the pumps there was a Navy jet mounted on a pedestal.  I didn't look at the plaque, but I wish I had.  (We were in a hurry to get to the hospital.)  At first I thought that object under the wing was artillery of some sort, but learned that it's a fuel pod.

Till next time...

~~Diana

Local Pieces of Americana

Been thinking about the farm quite a bit lately.  I guess it's because it's harvest time.  I don't know why, but I always liked the smell of fall.  There is a certain scent around a field when the corn is being picked that I can't really explain.  And I like it!

All of this thinking caused me to get out my pictures for a good looking-over.  So I thought that as long as I have them already out, I'd share some of them with you.  There are so many things about that little corner of the world that are endearing.


If you drive through town too fast (and most out-of-towners tend to), you won't get to see what may be the biggest oak tree in the entire state.  We've often wondered how old it is.  Taking into consideration the slow growth rate of oaks, our best guess is that it must be over a hundred years.  This oak is so big, that it took me, my son, my mother, and my father to encircle its trunk!!!  I swear one of these days I'm going to bring a tape measure.  Just for reference: my son is 5'10.

Each one of its limbs (and there are many!) are big enough to make a large tree all by themselves.  It's truly a beautiful tree, and I'm very pleased that it is quite healthy.  I've tried for years to figure out an angle where I can actually fit the whole tree into my picture.  Here's the view from underneath...or at least as much of the oak as I could fit in my lens.

If you travel a little ways out of town, you'll come to this cozy little town with a population of....2.  Yep, that's not a typo.  There are 2 people in town.  And this is a place I make sure to visit every time I'm Down Home.  Wouldn't miss it.  You see, this little town is called Moonshine.  And if you're ever in the Moonshine vicinity, I would very highly recommend that you stop by the Moonshine Store.  Now, I know what you're thinking...as far as I know, the strongest drink they serve is Birch Beer (Mmm!)  It's a cousin to root beer, without the hops, barley or malt.

Moonshine has THE BEST hamburgers in the world!  If you do get there, you might want to be on time.  Helen closes up her grill promptly at 12:30pm.  They only serve grilled food for an hour and a half Mon through Sat.  The last time we were there, they served up over 1,000 hamburgers.  Think about that for just a minute....Over. One. Thousand. Hamburgers. In. 90. Minutes.  Absolutely astounding.  They do serve several items on their menu, but that was the total for just the hamburgers served.  And they're priced right; 3 burgers, 3 bags of chips and 3 bottles of pop for $16.00.

Several miles to the north, you'll find another small town that offers a business with an unusual way of advertising...and I might add that it's really big.

There's a dirt track nearby...lots of fun, where the boys (and sometimes the girls!) are guaranteed to give you your money's worth!

I guess these things are just slices of Americana.  Things that we've all driven by in passing.  I try to take in all of these little things, and whenever I can, I take the old State Routes instead of the Interstates.  Yeah, it takes longer, but you get to enjoy more of our country.  And if you take a little extra time, you'll definitely get to meet some genuine characters along your way!


~~Diana