Welcoming Autumn...

Where have I been...... I've missed the whole last week of linking up for Blogtember... 

I missed linking up with Glenda over at Tootsie Time!... All I can say is that I have been busy with buyers and with closings and listing new listings!. Office meetings welcoming a new broker and  working with marketing. 

I even gardened. cleaned my house. Took a friend into Grand Rapids for a doctors appointment after reconstruction surgery so driving is not easy for her!. I even went to a balloon festival which you will hear more about in another post.

Its been misty in the mornings here. Visibility for drivers has been down to as little as 10 feet!. Then the sun comes out and the clean crisp air of  Autumn is very welcoming. I however have not been able to get out into the garden nearly as much as I would of wished.

 I didn't capture the mist as well as I would of liked too. I love the mist. I like the feeling of it on my face.. probably a left over from living in Great Britian. I think it makes the garden enchanting. I'd love to be clever enough to know how to capture the images I would love to photograph in my garden with the mist.

 This time of year there are still actually a lot of flowers to behold. However this post will not showcase them. Its going to be more about the contrasting textures, shapes and colours of the plants in my garden and how the fall has just enhanced their beauty with the changing colours and seed heads and pods...

 There are plants that I could be cutting back. I actually have taken out 8 huge wheel barrel loads.  I cut it all back way too early last year and Im hesitate to do the same this year. I do have some major overhauls to do again... How about you? Did you get some inspiration of areas that needed to be reworked or perhaps didn't work.. Mine hit me tonight as I was out making water wells around the new trees..... 

 This clematis is absolutely gorgeous.. Its laying over the holly. The contrast of the clematis leaves agaisnt the thick shiny dark green of the holly on its own is beautiful. The flowers look wonderful though.

 The fruit on the ornamental tree by the pond is a show stopper. You can even see the jewels I hung on the tree last fall once the leaves had fallen. They have been hidden all summer with the thick leaves.

 Chocolate Joe pye is fully blooming and I finally got a picture that shows the true colour of this Sedum.

 This is a good shot showing how I place my foliage so that even when there isn't any flowers there is still something to please the eye.

 Contrasting textures of leaves along with colour and then bloom shapes .

 I try to make sure that contrast in colour but also in shape and size is present

The Heuchera is looking a lot happier this year. Last year it had thick woody stems sticking out and I cut it back and buried it deeper!

 This is the time of year when the grasses start taking center stage. It looks pretty all on its own but covered in water droplets or with the sun shining through it ...it takes on a whole new look

 The moon garden is holding its own....

 The pond is even looking different with "whites" taking a bigger part of the action along with the different foliage's rather then the brighter colours that are usually to be seen

 Stems with bright burgundy colour really stand out.

 This blue is absolutely eye catching..

This Aconitum is a bit in the shade. When I cut it back to keep it from blooming before my garden tour...well, that was a mistake! Its only now trying to get enough energy to bloom. What did happen however is that each of the three plants have really put up a lot more stems and next year its going to be an impressive clump.

 In this partical shade the blue Phlox is really looking "blue"... which picks up the blue of the blue spruce.

 Seed pods from the butterfly weed still in tack. I unfortunately have not seen any caterpillars munching on their favorite seed heads.. perhaps they will still show up.

This is not the best picture.... It shows a purple leaf sand cherry and a new coneflower whos name escapes me at the moment... Next year I picture both being far more spectacular and then contrasting delightfully agaisnt the thick puffy leaves of the hydrangea and the sharp needles of the blue spruce.

This time of year there is even beauty in the silence of a lone water droplet

The light is very different this time of year.. Its lower and therefore the shades or streams of light through the trees are different. Here you can see the barerooted hostas that were planted this spring. They really grew but this is a part of the garden that the irrigation does not reach.

 I love this picture... this was a very bare dry area last year... 

 Lady tresses.... I bought these simply for their name! shameful.....

 A volunteer rose of sharon.... where to move it is the question.. I try to give away plants I don't want rather then pull them out and discard them so for now I will put it over in the holding bed.

 You can see there are flowers still.. that the foliage is still very thick.

 The pond is pretty much in shade for the entire day. 

 last year I grew heritage tomatos in pots up on the deck... this is a tomato that obviously fell and seeded itself... once the fruit ripens  we will see exactly which variety it is..

 Some areas are looking scruffy but if there is colour.... I hate to do anything that will take away from it..

This area I thought of as a secret garden... then added flowers and it became a butterfly garden area... tonight I decided that I want to change it yet again... I had to open up the area for the butterfly plants to get enough sun.. so now Im going to take it back to less maintenance and put the butterfly plants in an area where I can see them easier.

 This time of year even the stocks of the grasses have amazing colour. 

 The grasses capturing the light

 add water droplets and a bit of motion....wow... the rustleing sound competes with the waterfall.

 These heads are stretching to the tops of the spruce.

Its hard to believe that living in Alberta I just did not get the whole "ornamental grass" thing... most of the grasses that will winter over just looked like... well... grass!. so when I moved here and the grass started to grow I thought... okay. wait and see. Are they not beautiful.

So this was my catch up... What did you do this weekend. Did you volunteer and serve at your church.. reach out and help a neighbour. Take in a fall activity. Or perhaps you were able to just stay home and enjoy some of what surely must be the last days, weeks of enjoying our gardens..

Whatever you did... I hope you did it with all your heart. You invested some soul into it.

Thank you for stopping by my garden.. please leave me a message so I know that you have been. 

Kate