Getting Back to Autumn

A lot of cleanup happening in the garden these days. It is amazing, when I think that two years ago I was very pregnant with a big baby. (Sam was almost nine pounds when he was born - and me being 5' 1", you can imagine how I looked. I made everyone around me nervous, starting at about seven months.) And last autumn, I was whooped from work, adjusting to having a kindergartner and nursing that big baby.

But this year, the mobility is back and it feels incredible! I have been raking and mulching leaves - to return to the beds for overwintering and a good feeding. I planted a fragrant winter daphne and 100 bulbs. This weekend, I hope to clean out the much-ignored cold frame - filling it with compost and mulched leaves and getting it ready to grow greens and maybe radishes for us in late winter and early spring.

So, I think I am ready for winter. I still have a lilac to move and roses to prune. But the wood shed is full, thanks to Corey - which will heat our house by-way of the wood stove. And I have a pile of new books from the Friends of the Library sale, along with saved gardening magazines that I like to revisit. I just need to restock the bar with my favorite liqueurs (for coffees and spiked hot chocolate) and regular whiskey and sipping whiskey (for the rest of the time).

Photos from top: Kayaking at Beaver Creek with a friend on an early Sunday morning. Going over the mountains in Afton. Visiting The Pavilion Gardens at UVa. 'Heavenly Blue' morning glories from Willa's balcony. Autumn in Sugar Hollow - as seen from my bedroom balcony.