Last Gasp? of the 2026 Rock Garden

 The rock garden is pretty weedy. It did not get weeded in September or October. And it's not looking good that I'll go through it yet this year. But there are a few final things to see.

This is just a color shot. The red in the middle is the Sedum Elecombeanum. It reliably looks great in all the seasons. Sembervivum 'Black' behind it, and just some moss phlox and a stray vine from the vinca in the front.

The Sedum 'Atlantis' continues to be one of my favorites. The larger patch still looks nice, and you can see the tiny red buds of next year's growth down near the ground.

Here's the old standby, Sedum 'Autumn Joy.' It still has a little color.

This one makes me really happy. I just hope it survives the winter. This is the variegated Sedum sieboldi that I got in August. Despite being new, it got one flower stalk. And the leaves seem to also turn red.

Finally, the Gaillardia 'Spintop Red' is still blooming! It will probably keep it up if I'd deadhead the old flowers. We've had a killing frost, but it's still hanging in there.

I'm working on putting garden things away. I'll keep the tools out for a while in case I do a little weeding.

And it might happen. I'm finally starting to have some extra energy, and not feeling so sore and unwilling to move much.

Spent most of the day working on things on the computer. And that casserole I made yesterday? Meh... it's OK, but definitely not worth the time and energy to make.

See Final Hurrah of the 2025 Rock Garden

A 50-Year-Old BLT

 After almost a year of this sitting in my kitchen while I got over feeling sentimental about it, this will be leaving the house.

I made this wooden stacking toy for toddler Steve about 50 years ago. It was an astounding flop. The post isn't sturdy enough to stand up to toddler enthusiasm. He thought it was boring. Well, I have always liked to make things, so I got a lot of fun out of that, but no one except me has ever thought this was interesting!

Here are all the pieces of the sandwich laid out individually.

Here it is stacked up without the top piece of bread. I still think it's cute.

And a boring top-down view with the top piece of bread.

This is available to anyone who wants to pick it up. To be really perfect, the bottom "plate" and the slices of bread need to be repainted. The light colors have gotten stained. I'd mail it to anyone who wants to pay for shipping- but it's probably not worth it. If you want it and I see you occasionally, let me know and I'll hold it for you. After all... it's been sitting around here in various places for 50 years. Another little while won't matter. No takers... it will be going to a donation place.

In other news: I made a casserole that is good, but not worth all the bother it was to make. Won't keep that recipe. Washed more dishes. Must have done something else. Hmm.

See Best Things I Made in 2018

Fall Color Tour 2026

 Om and I went out for a few hours today to try to catch some fall colors. And we did find some, but not as many as we had hoped. I think it's been too dry. Anyway, we did find a few colorful spots.

This is along E. Hawley Rd.

North of the village of Fountain.

We popped into Walhalla Bridge on the Pere Marquette River. Nothing spectacular, but this view is OK.

Of course, we checked out Conrad Road. The section with my favorite trees has already dropped their leaves, but this isn't shabby.

Just because it's so bright red, I'm including a Burning Bush- the alien, ornamental Euonymous alatus

However, there are two native Euonymus that are attractive in the fall. They may or may not get as consistently red leaves, but the fruits are very cool. I saw this one in Kentucky. These are the seed pods. This is E. americanus, sometimes called American Strawberry Bush.

Also, E. atropurpureous, American wahoo, turns fairly consistently red in fall. The seed pods are almost as interesting, with a little less texture and all reddish-pink- not the orange seeds.

In other news: I did some bookwork things, but couldn't complete them due to an inability to log in to a website (eyeroll). I did some dishes. I had a Zoom meeting.

See Color Tour 2025- Part 1

Color on the Methodist Trails

 Getting back to some of the routine. Today I went shopping, did errands, and then went to bell choir practice. That meant I made time to take a little hike on the Methodist Church Trails.

The colors are pretty good right now. And that might not last, because we are supposed to get rain at the end of the week. That will probably bring many of the leaves down. After all, it's almost November.

One of the pieces of infrastructure the church has is a campfire circle, back near their picnic pavilion. I just liked the way it looked with the orange trees.

Since I last walked these trails (probably last spring before bells was over for the summer), they have added 14 benches. (I may have missed a couple since I didn't hike every piece of every trail today, but I saw 14). Most of the benches are in memory of someone, and each one has a cross that you would be looking at if you sat there, or sometimes just beside it. And I like the design of the benches. The seats are not so wide that they are uncomfortable for smaller people like me.

For a final spot of color, one of the planters at the church hasn't been killed by the frost yet.

Tomorrow, Om and I are going to take a color drive. I don't think I'll get pictures as nice as last year, but it's something we are willing to do together. We'll see what we find!

Miles walked in 2026: 662.8

Methodist Church Trails, various loops. 2.0 miles

See Not Peak Yet

Two Plants from the South

 I saw several new-to-me plants on this hike, and I don't have them all identified yet. One of the two I'll share today I've seen before, but not very often. This is a fern- American Climbing Fern- Lygodium palmatum The last time I saw it was in January of 2024 in southern Ohio. This trip, I saw a lot of it in both Kentucky and Tennessee. This is native. There are a bunch of other climbing ferns that are not.

Next up is a vine. I saw a lot of this climbing up trees, and didn't know what it was at all. It's Crossvine, Bignonia capreolata. It turns out that this has a very distinctive and pretty tubular flower in the spring. I guess I'll just have to go back! If you cut across the stem, it has the shape of a cross.

In other news: I took care of some more things, did some errands, and read some more. I need to get myself out of the books soon and really get busy. But this is what happens when I become reading-time deprived. My brain insists on making that up.

See NiKki and Bill