The last of the flowers and herbs have finally succumbed to the fall frosts. The reblooming irises managed to open about half of the buds that developed before dying back and made for some wonderful fall colors.. The petunia flowers are also gone but surprisingly the plants themselves are still hanging on and actually look quite good. I hope this bodes well for them to come back next year. I love how their iridescent purple, pink, and striped blossoms have spread all over the hillside. In fact I am seeing some variations that I never bought because of the cross-pollination. I even got a few pure white ones – which I never would have bought because as you know I don’t like white as a main theme. I never was much of a petunia fan before this, but I have decided I like the way they spread and I have to plant fewer to get coverage in an area where it is hard to dig very deep. Plus they are volunteering to return on their own.
Two weekends ago deer hunting season started with a 7 AM blast and I was a little worried about the bucks that live around here – particularly the 8+ pointer. We don’t hunt ourselves but many of the surrounding neighbors do and I knew he would be considered a prize. Still, he didn’t get to live to have 8-10 points without being pretty smart and yesterday as I was coming down the last fifty yards of the driveway to the house, there he was. He stopped and I stopped. We looked at each other for about a minute before I started to edge the car on and he bounded away. I got one last glimpse of him as he turned back to watch me briefly. Of course I didn’t think to get my phone out and try to snap his picture. One of these days I will see him close up in the yard and manage to get the telephoto lens so I can actually count the times on him. I’m betting on at least 10.
And finally, for the last month, my studio table has been the has been doing double duty as a drying rack for the herbs I grew and picked. I got around to stripping the dried leaves from the stems yesterday. Who knew the rosemary could be so pungent after it was dry. It actually had a piney smell to it and my fingers have had the aroma of herbs for half of the day. I managed to dry over a cup of the rosemary and 1/2 cup of oregano which I will use in my cooking over the winter. I particularly like to use the oregano in the artichoke spaghetti and the rosemary on the baked sweet and red potato fries. Yum.