More Hatley Castle in November #4

A few more photos from Hatley Castle in November Autumn Colors.  These are a few photos from the Italian Garden.  This is just the 'bones' of this garden at this time.  It is a riot of color in Spring and Summer. Nice bones, though!

Yesterday I finally got out to the garden.  I raked leaves off the paths in the front garden and put them onto the beds as mulch for the winter.  There are still leaves on the liquid amber tree that will be again covering the paths.  I raked the leaves and apples off the back grass.  Also took a bag of the apples over to the deer pasture.  Pat has been seeing a one year old buck in the mornings.  I have not seen it yet, but I did see a doe sashaying down the street early one morning.  It left the deer pasture and crossed the street and carried on up the short block to the park on the other side of our house.  The deer have 2 streets to cross to get from park to park area.  We shouldn't have too many accidents, I hope.  These deer never bother my plants.  I guess they have better food in the parks. My back yard is difficult for them to access, also.
I still have 32 tulips on the deck that need planting.  I have a bag of potting soil left over from the orange tree transplants.  I think I might set up one of my old plastic pots on the deck for some of the tulips and for basil plants when it warms up in the spring.  I have learned how to make pesto and we like it! 

My site counter stopped working properly a few days ago.  But, tonight, it is working again.  It is showing a lower number of hits, but I understand these meters are not always accurate. Actually the hits don't matter much to me, as this blog is primarily for my own interests. I will blog, and facebook to promote our Megashot, but I refuse to twitter.  Enough is enough.  :-)

On Megashot we now have videos to promote the photos in the contests and on our facebook page.  The videos are on YouTube and I have started an archival community on Megashot to record all the videos produced by Cyrus for Megashot.  The last ones are looking really good.  They have music synched to the display of photos and text.  You can view them on youtube or on Megashot in the Movies on Megashot Community          Click the hot link and go to each discussion thread to see them.  Also on the front page of the community there is a playlist. You can click on the playlist and see the categories of the videos and watch them from the play list.  On youtube you should be able to see them full screen.  See the list in the side bar for more megashot. net videos on this hot link.

The last photo, is the top of the water heater we just had replaced.  The pipe where the hot water leaves the tank was totally corroded and rusted.  The plumber, Vern was amazed that we even had any hot water pressure left at all.  The pressure was normal as far as we could tell.  We are very lucky that Pat caught this before we had a great flood.  We now have a 60 gal. tank too, which should let the 4 of us go through the shower without running out of hot water.

I made more squash soup today and have frozen 2 jars and have another in the fridge.  I gave Tara a jar of pickled peppers and pickled beets.  I made the mustard bean pickles, but they did not turn out as well as they should have.  The taste is good, but the beans should have been cooked more.  They are a bit tough.  I suppose I could microwave them in the jar. This would not hurt the consistency of the mustard sauce.

Life is really very good on the wet west coast.