Wordless Wednesday: Sweet Autumn Clematis

Hurricane Irene

So glad we made it through that storm with minimal damage to our yard.  The house seems to be in good shape, no structural damage.  Lots of debris in the backyard mainly which includes small tree limbs, leaves, pecan hulls, Sweet Gum balls and dead branches.  All and all we were very fortunate.  Took a stroll through our neighborhood this morning with hubby & our little terrier Spaz to see how the neighbors fared.  From the slides above you can see that they seemed to have the same minimal damage.  Some people had some larger limbs hit their chain link fencing, but that’s better than landing on the house.  I’ve heard that in the neighborhood across from us someone had a tree land on their garage.  I have ventured outside of our neighborhood as of yet, so I’m not sure what the streets are like out there.  We didn’t lose our power, it flickered a few times.  However I did hear some generators running further back in the neighborhood so obviously some did lose power yesterday.  The thing that really surprised me how this old barn (owned by the Yoder Family) which is pretty much dilapidated survived all that wind.  I figured it would have fell down by now.   Well it’s been an eventful weekend thus far, hope the rest of it is quiet.  Now I need to get out there and start the cleanup.  Boy the sanitation guys are going to be busy this week.  Have a nice weekend everyone, hope it’s uneventful for the rest of you too.   🙂

Wildflower Wednesday ( a day late)

(from upper L-R across & down: Unknown Solidago (background), Pink Chelone, Vernonia or Ironweed and Beautyberry)

  I meant to post this yesterday and got caught up with other stuff,  so it’s a day late.   Well it’s the last full week of August and the garden is starting to push out some early fall bloomers.  This is a great year for my Beautyberry with it’s gorgeous purple berries.   Mine are just starting to change color from green to a pale pinkish purple color.   Another favorite fall bloomer of mine is the Chelone or Turtlehead which is a great shade plant.  Ironweed has been blooming since last week in the garden and it really looks great with my Lantana ‘Miss Huff’.  It’s new to my garden this season and so far I’m very impressed with this native.  Solidagos have been blooming for a couple of weeks now and they are truly a sign of summer coming to a close.   I’m ready for this summer to end, it’s been long, hot & dry in the garden.  Fall will bring some cooler temps and hopefully some rain.    To see more Wildflower Wednesday posts or to join in please visit our gracious host Gail @ Clay and Limestone.  Sorry that I’m late with my post Gail.

Roses for Bloomin Tuesday

(From upper L-R: Rosa 'Morning Magic', Rosa 'Peace', Unknown Yellow, Knockout Roses, unknown Peach)

 Well it’s that time of the week again when we show what’s blooming in our gardens.  It’s all about the roses this week in my garden.  Some of these haven’t done much since May but their working on another big flush of blooms just in time for the next season.  The ‘Peace’ Rose, Unknown Yellow & Peach were transplants from my Grandmother’s last garden.  It’s nice to have them and I will be cutting her a few for our next visit.  Knockouts have been blooming non-stop all summer long and look great combined with my ‘Robert Poore’ Phlox.   ‘Morning Magic’ is a climber that I have growing on an arch in my Arbor Garden.  It is from the breeder of Knockouts so it’s tough, disease resistant and a prolific bloomer.  To see more Bloomin’ Tuesday posts this week please visit our host  Jean @ Ms Greenthumb.

Monarch Butterfly

Here’s a few photos of a Monarch Butterfly that I chased around my garden yesterday.  It kept flitting from one bloom to another.  Happy Friday!  Hope everyone has a nice weekend.  🙂