The Off Season

 It can be tough to adjust from an outdoor life to an indoor life each winter.  During the summer, if we have a nice day with nothing planned, we will often just go outside, sit in the shade and enjoy the surroundings we have created.  During cold weather there are still some beautiful days when we just can't sit around the house.  On those days we go outside and sit by a fire.  It's time to get some enjoyment out of all of those annoying dead trees.

My husband is not programmed for building small cooking fires.  The only suitable fire is a ceremonial bonfire.  Watching flames is mesmerizing.  They are even beautiful when they have burned down.

I have continued to walk around and check on the garden.  The deer have adjusted to shotgun season by migrating into town for a month or so.  Therefore, nothing has tripped over any cloches or stuck their face through any netting.  However, with the mild weather the racoons are still awake and looking for snacks.  I'm not sure what kind of snacks they are looking for, but they are pretty systematic...

Random hole.... what did they think they would find there?

Some of my perennial plants look just as nice now as they do in summer.  Like the Penstemon.  They put on a lot of foliar growth in the cool season and then in summer concentrate on bloom stalks.

For Thanksgiving we are having dramatic weather.

We live in the orange area expecting 15" of lake effect snow.  We're headed out to a local restaurant for dinner, then coming home for pumpkin pie.  Everyone have a safe and relaxing holiday weekend.