It took a lot of bending and stooping and squatting and crawling and digging and pulling, but we have the garden beds cleaned and ready for mulch. And there is still color left to enjoy.
Today we got the tulip bulbs planted. We plant them in gallon cans and then pop them out after blooming to make way for other things. The old bulbs are dried out and go to the Whidbey garden the next year. We treat tulips like annuals here because they don't come back well when left in the ground.
On Monday I made a big pot of beef barley stew and we have been eating it all week. Any thought of getting tired of left overs is negated by the thought of a hot meal ready in minutes after working outside in the fog all afternoon. Just add a salad and it's dinner! We finished it off tonight.
While I took photos and went inside to tend to some baking, Tom got a start on the transplanting of the cuttings growing on in the greenhouse. Thankfully this job can be done standing up!
I was getting plenty of exercise working in the garden, but it was hard to get going in the drippy dense fog every morning. I started each day with a 3.5 mile walk. Gotta' move in order to keep moving. And that gardening left us with plenty of aches and pains.
Tomorrow evening Jill, the grand kids and Jake are joining us for dinner and pumpkin carving. We'll have some family fun time. The pumpkins are ready.
When I came in from planting tulips this afternoon I baked an apple cake for our family dinner tomorrow. With four cups of grated apple, walnuts and cinnamon, it smells wonderful cooling on the counter.
I studied the voters pamphlet and marked my ballot yesterday. Tom got his filled out today. They go into the mail tomorrow. Voting done.
We have been saying we had one more big international trip in us, but we had put it off. It worked out well that we didn't book it for this fall, what with Jill moving into her new house soon.
But a year from now we will be cruising in the Mediterranean and spending time sight seeing in Italy. This morning we went to see our AAA travel agent and put a deposit down on a cruise departing from Venice, sailing through the Greek Isles, and ending in Rome. More planning will come later, as we add time on either end of the cruise and book flights and hotels and ground transportation. But we did it!
And now we're going to spent the rest of the evening in our recliners watching TV and not moving much. Tomorrow is another busy day.
A few more pics from Reeder garden:
Your garden is gorgeous, especially the maples. Love all the pictures.
ReplyDeleteHoly cow, do you ever stop?? You put most of us to shame with all accomplish. Esp. me - I have barely touched my flower beds.
ReplyDeleteYou will be on your Mediterranean cruise when we will be on our Seine River cruise. I am going to try to post on my blog daily and hope you will too.
ReplyDeleteYou are just like the energizer bunny...you keep going and going and going.
ReplyDeleteI am going to try that tulip idea.
what a gorgeous garden with the pumpkins and spider webs decorations-you are ready for halloween!
ReplyDeleteWow. You are definitely busy, Linda. It amazed me how little distance we needed to get out of town yesterday to leave the fog behind. And then to come back to it! Leaving for my blogging retreat on Vashon Island today; hope we have some time free of the fog! :-)
ReplyDeleteOh, and I LOVE your spider webs.
What beautiful color your still have in your garden. Your fall garden looks better than my Spring one.
ReplyDeleteYou must be excited about your cruise. Sounds like a great eating and marvelous scenery trip. Hope you continue to blog while you travel. You have time to figure out how to do that.
The garden looks good, although not as lush as when it was at its peak this summer. I still have so much work to do. I've been concentrating on chores that can be done standing up too.
ReplyDeleteI am so jealous of your Mediterranean cruise. I would love to do something like that. Maybe when my husband retires. Gotta get my ballot filled out too.
Gardening is a lot of very rewarding work. You have lots of greenery and by the way you've left things the green will stay all winter.
ReplyDeleteway to go planning ahead with a cruise! Your gardens still look good and that is a great idea with the tulips! I wonder if it would work here...too late to try it this year. That is a beautiful tree outside your front door...I will guess it is a Japanese Maple. :)
ReplyDeleteLinda, we're going on a Mediterranean Cruise next October also. Wouldn't it be amazing if we were on the same boat? Wow! Your garden is so ready for next spring. Yae!
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