Fertilizer Friday -- Still a Few Pretties

A week ago, when I left for the East Coast, there was hardly any color in the leaves of my oak tree. Now there's lots of orange-brown and yellow.

I also still have quite a few Dahlias blooming. Interestingly, all three of these came from seed from a single plant that I bought last year, called Dahlia Harlequin.

My Vitex is blooming. I've heard that butterflies like the flowers, but it seems to me that it is way too late in the season for butterflies.

My chocolate Joe-Pye Weed is flowering. From across the lawn, it looks like a pretty white froth floating above the plant.

There are still plenty of folks from all around the world, posting to Tootsie's Fertilizer Friday post on Tootsie Time. Go take a look!

Getting Back Into It

The thing with blogging is -- the longer you put off writing, the harder it is to get back into it.

I've been reading and commenting on many of the blogs that I follow, but not posting to my own blog. And I've been working in my garden, when the weather is good and I have the time. Sometimes Life gets in the way.

I  caught a bad cold after my son visited.

Then my mother-in-law passed away, and my husband went to England for about a week and a half to deal with that. I don't think I've talked about my husband much here. I've noticed a lot of bloggers give their families pseudonyms, to protect their anonymity. What shall I call my husband? The Brit? The Financier (that's his role in the garden)? The Computer Geek? The Love of My Life?

I think I'll just call him Nigel. He wholeheartedly supports my plant addiction and garden obsession, and I love him for it (well, for lots of other things too). He doesn't understand it, but he knows it makes me happy. I try to do the same for his hobbies.

Less than a week after he returned from that unplanned trip to England, I went back East on a planned trip, to see family and to meet the four new babies that have been born in my family since we moved out here to Washington. That was a lovely treat! I also saw some beautiful foliage while I was out there. I'd forgotten about that, how you can just walk down the street there in the fall, and see so many different leaf colors, and none of them green! We don't get that here in Washington -- there's a reason it's called The Evergreen State.

So...now I'm back, back to working in the garden, when weather permits. I have lots of changes to show. I've been to two plant sales, where I bought new plants. I've got lots of bulbs to get in the ground.

And blog posts to write.