This is one of my hostas in its October colors.  I seem to be having quite an adventure with this new uploader. 

This is shooting towards the woodland in my back garden.  In the foreground is the small tree that is in the Arbutus family.  Very messy.  It is dropping berries on the sidewalk now.  The birds are suppose to like it, but I never see them eating these berries.  In the background on the left is a Japanese cedar.  It is an evergreen that is bronze in summer and organish/red now and in winter.  In the middle is the momentary colors of the sumac trees.

I had two fuschias in a cedar planter on the deck this year.  I hope they survive the winter.  I should cover them once the colder weather arrives.

Yesterday I made a birthday card for Irene.  It was quite fun to do.  I hope she likes it. We replenished the ink supply for my printer today.  :-)  It took me several tries to get the card made properly with all four pages of it with the top up and the right reverse side..  fun, though. 
After getting home from shopping and lunch (Squash soup with pesto.. yum) I went out to trim back the branches of the front liquid amber tree.  We had high winds for a few hours last night.  The tree branches were whipping around very close to the living room window.  Our power was out for a few hours. The next wind storm should not be a worry with regard to the branches.  I took the pole pruner saw and cut them back quite far.  One of the branches I had to reach by standing on a chair.  I stood on the chair to cut back the burning bush also.  It is now at a height of about 10 feet and should bush out more.  I trimmed the simplicity rose, also while I was working in that corner.  The roses are nearly finished and I will be soon cutting back all of them.  The cuts on the liquid amber tree are not professional, but they are not too bad.  This should keep the tree in check for a few years now. 
The apple tree is in terrible shape.  I will be pruning it and the plum tree also.  I took a few apples to the deer pasture again.  The deer do seem to be eating them, as they disappeared when I last put a few out there.
I have the humming bird feeder out and are getting visits.  There are numerous birds in the back yard. When I was out today there was a gorgeous little wren no more than 18 inches from me... no camera, alas.  There are uncos, sparrows of different kinds, tit mouse, robins, jays, woodpeckers, alaska robins, wrens, humming birds.   Its a treat to watch them.

Pots and things in the back garden in September

These are the marguerites in a pink pot in front of the back garage. In the Spring, this pot holds tulips.. 

The fuschias are in a cedar box on the deck and are looking pretty good now.  I hope I can over-winter them.  I have another one beside the garage that is a perennial, that I hope grows into a small bush.

This is a shot of the dry stream that is in the shade garden under the deck.  The moss and ferns are looking very good in this area.  The moss garden needs to weeded, though. 

These are the stepping stones that lead into the back garden area from the patio area.  The sicilian mint is filling in nicely around the cement stepping stones.  It has a wonderful fragrance when stepped on.  You can see the large leaves of the fig tree and the fine seed heads of the fennel at the top opf the photo.  There are other little rockery plants growing beside the stones. 

 The gaillardia is growing in the strawberry jar that sits in the small rockery beside the vegetable garden at the back.  The stepping stones from above lead to this area in the back garden.  This stone path also branches off to the right to the Japanese garden area and the pond.