my garden walk~

stepping out the kitchen door, the cutting garden is getting fall color, the red simplicity roses are finally doing better with the slight dip of temp, they were planted bare root in the heat of summer and never got a toe hold.

the urns are looking fabulous, cascading freely

tomatoes are still sweet and free flowing

the fountain urns have been outstanding all summer, heavy with an abundance of nonstop color

dahlias are putting on a fabulous show

 

thrilled to have flora back in my life, my eyes stumble every time i sweep the property, i am startled and think there is a person in the yard! i spent 2 days scrubbing off her black soot and what paint i could manage to rub off, but the lower i went on the statue the more fused and impossible it was to remove the damage. 

tomorrow i will stain her, fingers crossed i don't ruin her after all she has been through!

the pampas grass is gorgeous, giant fluffy fronds make me think of ancient egypt and rome, royalty being pulled by chariots with fronds rising high off their heads. 

i have such an abundance of birds on my property, it is always alive with endless chatter. my basil is a magnet for finches, i will see 50 weaving in and out of the kitchen garden all day long. my 6 bird feeders need to be replenished daily, never have we lived with so many varieties and quantities of bird. 

sometimes the bird song is so deafening when my husband is working that his coworkers ask if he is sitting next to birds cages when the window is open. 

the day our house burned my husband accidently left the door open and 2 feral brother cats escaped the safety of my house. i have been heart sick, often i didn't know which was more depressing, losing my house, or losing my cats, the grief was unbearable... 

i didn't see them for weeks, then periodically i would spot them darting under bushes, now skeletal from lack of food. i tried trapping them to no avail, we purchased infra red cameras to see if could track their movements, after 6 weeks i was finally able to capture one by luring him with food with the door open while i hid behind the door, slamming him in. i am still trying to figure out how to get his brother...

 my cats are all indoors, after a lifetime of pets i learned cats live longer if not allowed to roam, between rattlesnakes and other predators life is just better never worrying about who didn't come home and who is injured. 

below is a cat that showed up the first night i stayed at this house, she weighed 5 pounds as an adult, was nothing but bones, truly starving. i brought her in and to my surprise she truly is my 3rd dog, she is always around me and follows me from room to room, her name was mystery, mysty for short, it was a mystery how she found us. her name has since morphed into muffy, my little muffin top who went from skeletal to a soft and squishy full size cat, she is also my newest secret weapon to try and lure my missing feral boy back home... 

when he first saw here he ran 75' straight to her and rubbed noses, he was thrilled. sadly only muffy came in, rusty didn't follow her home. i am still trying, hopefully some how she can lure him back indoors to food, warmth and safety, a lot is riding on her shoulders...

after tucking muffy safely back indoors i looked up to see this fire in the distance, i won't lie, just the sight of smoke makes me rigid, no rain in sight, temps back up to 90s next week...