Up at 4:30 am this morning and enjoying coffee with my computer. This is my favorite time of day. DH is still sleeping; let the cat in (before she scratched my newly painted door) and she is napping near me on a dining room chair cushion.

The cold front hasn't arrived yet and it is still 51° outside and no rain yet. My painting got nice and dry and I was able to remove the tape from the windows on the door panes.

I took an early morning tour of the yard and garden yesterday morning and found a few blooms here and there.
A first year seedling echinacea was blooming. The new plants always look much better to my eye than the older ones. The leaves are larger, deeper green, just altogether healthier.


There were a few rudbeckia blooms from self seeded plants this summer, the two fall blooming iris Suky and Dashing are still very nice and one pink one that seems too tan to me is blooming. I have some seedling nicotiana sylvestris blooming. They seem to love the cooler weather. I have seedlings of them all over like ground cover.

Speaking of groundcover, the lamiums have been outstanding this year with blooms scattered all season and some are still in bud. I think they must like the cooler and wetter weather that we have had.

Most of the leaves are gone from the trees but I am still enjoying the color in the Ash Tree Bed . It is filled with lots of self seeded things like kolreuteria paniculata, euonymous alatus, and virginia creeper. This is the bed next to the drive that has the large Black and Blue Salvia in it. This picture is from the north side. You can't see it, but there is one small dark pink bloom from the clematis that climbs up the barberry.



The buddleias are putting out new growth along the stems and the 'Honeycomb' variety is blooming.

The garden still has a short row of turnips producing. I had thought it was a going to be a complete bust. I hadn't grown them before and failed to thin them properly soon enough and almost plowed the whole row up.
Glad I didn't. I have had three messes so far and will have a couple more........probably.

There are also lots of volunteer potatoes....I left many in the ground because as soon as I dug them, they began to rot....so I will see what I get from these 'early planted' ones.
The bad news is every bare spot on the ground is thick with bromus tectorum/cheat and one of our native lamiums, either lamium amplexicaule/henbit or lamium purpureum/deadnettle. At this stage I can't tell which. I hope a hard freeze will kill all of it or I will have a serious job ahead for spring!

Today is bread making day. Also have plans to look for some straw for bedding for the the milking shed and since my hens are currently on strike, check out a local source for eggs.