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.

Spring Gardening

This is another one from the Victoria Grid Project shoot. I really like this texture one. I have made it square as I have done to the others I tweaked today. Others can be seen on my Flickr account... see side bar. Since learning that I have only 300 MB here I shall have to be more cirucumspect in loading photos.

Over the last few days we have clipped up the tree prunings from last Fall. I have now trimmed the fig, the apple and the strawberry tree. Pat has taken down the pear. This was a Confernce pear and produced scabby pears that never seemed to ripen. So, its gone. Today we got some of these recent prunings clipped up for the wood pile. There is a bit left to do, yet. After finishing this lot of prunings, I shall trim the bay laurel, the yews, and then get after the roses and boxwood at the front. Once I get out there and get at it, it does not seem to take all that long.

We were to Steve and Ruby's last nite for dinner and had a good visit. Haven't talked to them for a long time. Ruby has about 6 more years until she can retire. Their house is looking great. What a reno they did!! And so is their new old car.

Pat has been doing some repairs to our dodge lodge... so its getting into that perfect shape that he likes to keep his vehicles. ... everything working and clean and in its place... so orderly.