These flowers in the herb / rock garden en route to the main garden generously offer their colors and shapes in early October.


our maine home – zone 5b
These flowers in the herb / rock garden en route to the main garden generously offer their colors and shapes in early October.


Spent some time at camp today painting.







I pulled several Red Kuri squash down from the heights of their trellis along the chicken run. Their color is amazing.

Then I walked to the community garden and pulled some great big Napoli carrots. Back at home, I harvested some stunted carrots from under the corner trellis. It’s not a very good place to plant things – too much shade during peak summer growing season. Only the kale has really done well under there.

I tried to take a photo with my cellphone, which usually works pretty well. But it was not up to this almost monochromatic scene with little contrast. Sam snapped this photo with his camera.

Sam spotted this barred owl hunting from a perch in a pine tree. We watched it for quite awhile as it swiveled its head back and forth inspecting the presence of mice or voles. Maybe chipmunks. We have a lot of small rodents, so wishing the owl happy hunting.
The kiwi leaves are solid yellow now and look spectacular. Even though the sun was not shining when I took these photos, I didn’t want to wait because they’re sure to start falling soon.






It has been a spectacular sunflower year. All were volunteers in the main garden. I transplanted a few into a better spot, but still was impressed by how well they all did.
We started bringing large and small bouquets of them into the house. In the kitchen, their beauty brings joy and uplift hour after hour, day after day. There are blooms remaining in the garden, but many are hidden around the corner or may not have their faces toward us. A small effort to bring them in and change their water, for the amount of delight they bring with them.
An early frost this year. Three nights in a row. A light frost that barely affected our remaining veggies in the home garden. But I thought it was time to harvest the squash at the community garden. Here they are, looking good!



I noticed this grove of trees on the side of the road soon after we moved in to our Maine home. Now I make it a point to look at them often. I’m not sure what type of tree they are, maybe gray birch? But I love the way they stand together and seem related and resolute in their togetherness.



The kiwi vine leaves are starting to turn color. The arbor looks especially beautiful this time of year. Unfortunately, the little round lights are broken and Sam couldn’t fix them. I’ll have to take them down.





