Autumn Colour

        "Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower"  by Albert Camus is one of my favorite fall quotes, and so very true. By now, most of the leaves have fallen, so some of these photos were taken a few weeks ago. A few years ago I bought a little maple to grow in a container on my patio, but after several years of the leaf tips turning brown every summer, I decided to plant it in the ground. It is much happier now, and no brown leaves! This spring I bought a new shrub to replace my elderberry that died, and even though it is still small, I love the colours of the leaves, both in the summer and now. 
  I attempted to grow cantaloupe this summer, even though our summers are too cool for them, and what did I get? One little cantaloupe that I babied with a cold frame into early October and wasn't quite ripe when I picked it, but we sure enjoyed it! There's also a few blooms left, and a picture of our kitten Oliver who is six months old now. What are your favorite plants for fall colour? 

Maple

Maple leaves

Burning bush

Burning bush and Chester

Ninebark and Viburnum

Cantaloupe

Choisya ternata

One Last Cosmos bloom

Oliver with some summer annuals still blooming

An Early Spring

Our winter was basically nonexistent this year, so we are experiencing an early Spring. Some plants are a few weeks early, while the geraniums started blooming a whole month earlier than normal. I don't think anyone is complaining though. I don't know if this happens to you, but I found some bulbs blooming in my yard that I have no recollection of buying or planting, ha ha. They are called Spring Snowflake or Galanthus. I had one growing beside my house and another underneath our hazelnut tree. The house makes a poor backdrop for flowers, so I experimented with holding coloured page dividers behind the blooms. You can't have spring without tulips, so I added some photos of those along with some others. The Scillas were here when we moved in and they just keep multiplying and spreading. I'm not sure which variety they are but once you have them you HAVE them.  

Geranium Sanguineum 

Spring Snowflake

Spring Snowflake

Spring Snowflake

Glory of the Snow or Chinodoxa

Choisya ternata

Elderberry

Tulip Blue Diamond

Tulips Purple Flag

Scilla

Bleeding Heart Luxuriant

The Wall

     Well, I can hardly believe it but our retaining wall is finally done! With our old wooden wall, we had a mini mud slide every time it rained, and that was even before it fell down. Keeping our driveway clean at the bottom of our front steps was next to impossible. Now that I've finally gotten the mud cleaned up, I hope it will keep the inside of our house a bit cleaner too. The heather plants weren't very happy about being moved mid-bloom, and I probably lost a lot of bulbs, but I still think it was well worth it.
     My roses are blooming earlier than usual, along with some other flowers that usually bloom in June. I'm also sharing a photo of the plant that I bought for my mom for mother's day. I found the colours quite unique and beautiful for a Chrysanthemum. I hope you all have a lovely long weekend whether you're celebrating this weekend or the next!

Rose Hansa

Rose Therese Bugnet

Chrysanthemums

Choisya

Chives

Tulips Blue Diamond

Tulips Antoinette

Tulips Dream Touch

Merry Christmas!

      I hope you are enjoying the Christmas season in spite of the busyness and potential stress. I finally finished my Christmas shopping today! It seems like the people in my life get more difficult to shop for as the years go by. Then there are those family members who say they don't want anything at all. I wonder, does every family have one of those? There isn't much happening outdoors flower-wise, but I do have one flower photo to share that I took in November.  We didn't torture our cat with Christmas photos this year (yet) so I'm sharing an old one. Merry Christmas!

Choisya 

Tiger