Christmas Notebook

The air has taken on that “autumn feel.” Sort of golden, and a little dusty and sweet somehow. Lots of pretty things yet to see when we walk the yard. The hydrangeas were beautiful this year. Most are fading to a soft rosy pink and a pretty green color.

I want to pick some for a winter bouquet and also need to get some for the Victorian Christmas tree. I might spritz them with a little white glitter spray for the tree. There is one fresh blossom. Seems a lot of the plants put out a few spring blossoms in the fall. Refreshing when everything else is fading.

The crabapple tree looked puny all summer. The leaves didn’t develop well. But it has put out a showing of fruit. Not as prolific as usual and maybe not as bright red as usual, but the birds will still enjoy the feast.

I think I showed you the asters before, but they are too pretty to ignore.

Surprise! A mushroom village erupted in the front yard this week. I like them so much, I mowed around them. 🙂

The little iris ‘Baby Blessed’ is blooming. It’s a great rebloomer. About 12″ tall, it will bloom off and on all summer. This week, we have quite a few blossoms. A whiff of spring in the midst of autumn.

Butterflies number three and four were released Thursday. They didn’t wait around for a photo op, but flew off as soon as they were out of the container.

The fifth butterfly to emerge (yesterday) was our first male. The male Black Swallowtail has a lot less blue than the female. Not sure why some are content to sit for a long time and others can’t wait to leap into the sky.

We still have twelve chrysalises and two caterpillars. The other day, DD watched one emerge, but I missed it. She pointed out another one and told me to watch it during the morning. She was sure it was ready to emerge. Well, sure enough…I walked into the kitchen about 10:00 a.m. and there it was, slowly waving its wings back and forth. Maybe I will be able to catch one of the remaining ones as the butterfly emerges. 🙂

~~Rhonda