A time to rest.

I drove by a neighboring farmer's home the other day and noticed all of his eight
tractors parked in a row. His combines and hay swathers, balers and plows
are all parked neatly in his equipment yard.
This can only mean one thing...
harvest time is over.
  

My own little harvest is finished here as well.

My mower and yard carts, pruners and clippers

and shovels and hoes are back in the garden shed for another season.

I brought the new turquoise bench in for the Winter and it will stay in the reading room

until next Summer.

Well, maybe not just this room. I have been known to move things around a lot.

Last week Dale's best friend had to come and help move our bedroom back to it's 

post Summer arrangement. He asked "didn't I just come the Spring and help move it here?"

You see, in the Summer, I always move the bed in front of the windows so we can enjoy

having the windows open for the breeze and then move it back before Winter.

I cut all the hydrangeas I wanted to cut before the hard frost came a few nights ago.

I'm so glad I did because it got so cold that all we have now are are crispy,

brown and black hydrangeas.

I have been watching the weather forecasts for over a week now so I could cut the last 

of the flowers

to have in the house for one last hurrah. 

I put bouquets in almost every room in the house.

When I went to IKEA in Draper, Utah, I got these 

woven hanging baskets for the bathroom.

I love them because they hold wash cloths and my makeup and keeps the clutter 

off the counter.

They make pretty cool bouquet holders too!

Roses on a shelf above the tub.

So before the hard frost I thought I would go out and pick one of everything still blooming.

This is the little pail of flowers.

Everything that I knew wasn't going to make it through the 20 degree low we had.

 Those are Landon's toys in the background you see on the floor in the above photo. 

I could have picked them up and shut the doors on the armoire,

 but it looks like this all the time.

If you came to my house and into this room you would be dodging

legos and all kinds of plastic toys on the floor.

This room and the kitchen is where we do most of our hanging out. 

So it is never really picked up.

Landon's preferred toy is a magazine to rip to shreds and so you can 

imagine what the room looks like half the time.  

This is a good day. 

The sweet peas are no more and the roses are now ragged in the garden.

So these blooms are the last of the Summer.

I will be buying my fresh flowers at the market from now on.

They made a lovely centerpiece for the coffee table in the living room.

I can't walk passed them without smiling.

As you can tell, I don't really do any seasonal decorating at my house.

I used to when all the children were home, but now the only only season I decorate for

is Christmas and a little bit for Easter.

I have more than a little bit of 'lazy' in me.

One awesome thing Dale and I did this Fall was go to a Autumn

barn dance that a local rancher holds in his barn every year.

He hires our daughter Kim's band, which plays a lot of country rock and 

opens the barn to anyone and everyone who wants to 

come out and have a great time. 

It is the best time for everyone in town to come together and socialize 

and dance the night away. It usually draws over 200 people.

Dale and I love to dance and I think we danced every dance the first hour of it.

The next day I could hardly walk!

Kim had my daughter Haylee and me come up to sing some songs with her.

We had so much fun!

I can hardly wait for the next one.

But my feet can!

Oh October...

I think the month of October is much too short.

Don't you think so too?

A month this beautiful should be at least 40 days long!!! 

and I don't think that would even be long enough!

It has been so beautiful here. 

The weather has been perfect for a 'perfect' Autumn.

We've had both rainy and mild.

I have been cutting a lot of the hydrangeas in their many different and varying 

colors over the past few days.

The hydrangeas in this post are Limelight, a variety hardy to the zone I live in. 

 The changes in the garden have been so enjoyable to watch. 

Every morning the change is dramatic.

 

I have been working so hard getting things transplanted and winterized.

Every day I'm out cutting back foliage, weeding and dividing perennials.

I have a small garden so I am able to manage it by myself without help. 

It consists of one very large bed, with several smaller beds around the property.

I wish the entire property was in garden, but Dale thinks I have plenty to keep me busy.

(especially since he had to do a lot of it himself this year)

I would do without the large lawn area we have and plant it all in flowers and shrubs 

if I had my way.

I am making the most of the area I have by planning more garden structures for Dale to build.

He is always so much help and always willing to build what I think will work in the space.

He retired this Spring from law enforcement and I am enjoying having him home more.

He is loving spending more time with the horses. 

I dream of having a garden like Carolyn's at Aiken House & Gardens  but I will be content 

going to her beautiful blog 

viewing all of her amazing beds and beautiful garden rooms.

Did you know that she and her husband do all the work themselves too? And her garden is huge!

But, like I said, my own garden is very small and I have a lot crammed into it, so it does 

entail a bit of work three seasons of the year. 

It's the best kind of work!

 My Centurion crab apple trees in the back yard are starting to change color

and before the leaves fall, they will be gorgeous.

I look forward to this every year.

I will be raking leaves soon, but I can't get too anxious or I will be raking them twice. 

And just around the corner of the house it still looks like Summer.

This is the south side of the house and it has it's own little micro-climate.

The roses and sweet peas are still blooming like they were blooming a month ago.

I cut a little bouquet almost daily.

Sweet peas really are a remarkable little flower.
Lovely form and lovely fragrance.

I am still harvesting lavender and getting plenty for the sachets I will make this Winter.

It's tedious work getting it off the stem, but I just pop in a movie and work away.

For now, I still have many things on my to-do list to do before the snow comes.

SO, 

I am going to start lobbying to make October at least ten days longer.

Change doesn't always come easy.

It's always curious to me how some years Fall makes itself known all at once and 

other years it creeps in ever so slowly that you hardly see the changes from one day to the next. 

The latter is how Autumn has made it's way here in 2011. 

I still have so many blooms and so much green in the garden, and yet everywhere I look I see it.

Change.

Everywhere, change.

I see it in the mornings, and I see it in that special slant of light in the afternoon that

comes only this time of year.

I see it in grasses that grow along the roads here, as they 

take on a deeper amber hue.

I see it in the horses as they start to puff up from the subtle growth in their coats

as they prepare to face the cold that will come sooner than I would like to think about.

I see it in the last flush of roses on the bush. 

The blooms are more vibrant than in the heat of Summer.

Even in my home I see changes as I prepare the house for more time spent indoors.

The throws and quilts and pillows.

I feel the change in me as well.

A sort of discontent that I can't really identify.

Wanting to change my hair, my clothes, my house, my routine,

just about anything to satisfy this something I can't put my finger on.

A yearning for a new adventure, a new perspective, 

 just something out of the ordinary.

Or even just something different to fix for dinner.

and wondering if everyone else feels this way as the season changes.

It happens every year whether the Autumn comes in all at once or just seeps in. 

It passes...it always does. 

I'm easily satisfied, so I know it won't take much.

(I'm having my hair done tomorrow, maybe that will do it)

Cleaning up the 'crap' room

Pardon my slang,

but this is what we call the guest room.

I am on a mission this Winter to get this room company worthy.

(I think I can hear my daughters and husband laughing)

I'm sure they think it's hopeless))

It used to be my sewing/craft room 

(thus the crap)

It has always been the dumping room. Where everything that has no home ends up. 

I've tried, I really have, but there is no way I can keep it tidy.

It's in bad need of a paint job, new flooring and a maid.

Since I had some grandchildren coming for the weekend, I decided to straighten it up enough

that one of them could find their way to the bed and make use of it.

A little pitcher of sweet peas should make them feel welcome.

 I love the fact that the sweet peas are still blooming. I've never had them bloom this good this long.

 

They smell so good...

 and are such photogenic little things!

  They go a long way to making this guest room look a lot more inviting!

I took these photos Friday to have in my garden files to remind myself next year to 

plant these again in this same bed.

They have flourished here!

This walkway joins our front patio to our back parking and 

I couldn't even count the passes I make here in a day, but I can say it is 

always a pleasure with the sweet peas in bloom.

A heavenly, fragrant pleasure!