Pure Gold

The leaves have been falling steadily in the garden and so it is now time
to get the rakes out. All week has been spent cutting back all the perennials
that need it and  doing a little weeding in the beds. 

The leaves have been truly brilliant this year. 

The golds and reds are beautiful out in the garden and the weather 

has been perfect this October. 

A little crisp during the days with cold nights.

I love the crunching leaves underfoot as I go about my work.

After I took these photos a few days ago I almost took the hammock down
to store it over for winter.
I'm not sure what it was that distracted me from the chore but I am so
glad it did because 3 of the grandchildren were here on Sunday and they
played forever in it.
As you can guess---it's no longer covered in leaves : )

This is what it looks like from my bedroom window.
I've written before how much I love looking out of these windows to the garden
and counting my blessings. I never tire of this daily ritual.
It seems to center me.
It's one of my many forms of meditation.

 I feel that if we don't take the time to be grateful for what we already have
how can ever make room in our lives for more?

 Every day when  I take the time to do this...my heart seems to expand and then I feel that it
enables me to see even more beauty in all of my surroundings the rest of the day.
It truly is one of the best times of my day.

My thankful time.

Speaking of thankful....

I would love to show you my favorite place on earth.
The colors this fall have been so beautiful.

This is a property we have that is about 17 miles from our home located up a canyon
in the Fishcreek drainage.
It is the summer pasture for our horses and it is also where my little shack is.
If you look to the far right side of the photo below you can barely see some red in the trees
and that's my own little place.

This property is forty acres of pasture and woods and was once owned by Dale's grandfather
and then later by his great aunt Lib.

In the photo below is a little grove I particularly love.
Because of the zoning laws in our county we haven't been able to build a good
sized cabin and can only build things under a specific square footage (small)!!! but I would like to build myself another little teeny little structure here and hand my little shack over to the men in the family.

and this is where my little red shack sits in another grove of aspen
-it's the red you see through the aspens-
my daughter and I painted it red last year and it looks so pretty in the snow with the
white bark of the bare aspens around it

This photo was taken on the hillside of the forty acres looking toward the reservoir that sits south of us.
It's a favorite fishing spot for many fishermen in the summer.
This road (the West Fork road) splits our place in two and gets
quite a workout in the summer, fall and sometimes winter when the ice fishing is good.

This is looking west and again the road that splits our property. The road isn't maintained in the winter
so to get into our place in winter is usually by snowmobile.

The horses will be coming off the pastures this week and brought home to where we live to be wintered.
Below is the north side of the road and a lovely view of the mountains.

This side has about thirty acres of the total amount of the property.
I love this view, but I favor the more wooded parts of the place that are
on the other side of the road.

If you would like to see it in summer I did post about it a few years ago here.

In a couple of days the little witches, goblins, faeries, princesses, batmans, vampires, bunnies
or whatever costumes the little ones come up with will be at the door
for their treats and I will be ready for them.
((nope---I haven't eaten all the candy---YET))
I love seeing all the children of our town on the night of Halloween.
 It's another joy of small town living.

Happy Halloween
I bought a new broom for the night!

Autumn roses and garden

The roses are almost all done blooming except a few stray blooms here and there.
The roses below are Bonica and they are actually still blooming quite abundantly.
I am pretty sure by morning however, they won't be looking too pretty since
our overnight temps will be in the twenties.
I wanted to share some of the last of the roses I have cut for the house and
a few photos of the garden this fall.
I think I will let the roses and garden do the talking in this post since it is
almost 11 PM and by this time of the day I don't have very much to say.
I sure hope that I will soon get back into the hang of posting something
of substance and have a little more time to do it.

I can't believe I am saying this, but I am almost looking forward to the
quiet days of winter!!!

 here they are after sitting in the vase a few days

This photo was taken two days ago and they are still covering

much of the bush under the oaks.

The Double Delight has one lone bloom left on it.

Limelight hydrangea

Snowdrift crab apples

See you soon!!!

---Hugs from here---