Nothing going on today.
I am cold and just cannot get enthusiastic about anything – one of those days I just wish to snuggle up in a warm place and let the world go by. The day is dreary and I am tired of the gray skies and constant drizzle with occasional heavy rain pounding on the roof that has been going on since Friday. It just feels like it is going to be a Lonnnnggg Winter.
Oh well – what caught my eye today was a link at the top of the page here that says  “Claim your Blog” Click here.
Does anyone know what this all about?

This is the last day we are on Daylight savings for the year. Tonight we put our clocks back one hour. The news said we get to sleep in an extra hour and this is good for the heart   They also said of course Monday we get stressed again and all that benefit is gone haha. There are times when the News never ceases to amaze me and make me laugh. So many contradictions, so many scares that turn out to be hot air, so many things the scientists are supposed to have found – but wait, it is only a preliminary finding and not confirmed or even close to being viable.  Oh well, guess they have to fill their time slot.

We had a great Halloween night after all. The rain dried up just before 5pm and it was not that cold either.
Not sure exactly how many showed up – less than last year, but not by that many. Judging by the left over candy must have been a little over 50. For the most part they came in small groups, and seemed the parents accompanied the majority of them, for which I was happy to see. Everyone had some great costumes on this year, including the parents.

And this morning Elmer called to let me know the new neighbors have started to move in! Too many people helping and only small vehicles and truck so far, so do not know which ones are the new owners.

I sit here listening to the rain pouring on the roof and just hope by tonight it will ease up considerably as the little ones go out to Trick or Treat. Bad enough it is going to be fairly cold out for them too.
It will be interesting to see how many show up this year, they do seem to get less evey year, but I have lots of candy (especially the kind Elmer likes, just in case it is not all used up LOL)

This came in my mail – the results page is very interesting.
Just for fun, I decided to share it here

If the world could vote….

Who is behind the site?

Just three guys from Iceland. The site is independent from all political parties, companies or hidden agendas. It’s just an idea a 22 year old guy in Iceland came up with and executed with a little help from a couple of friends.

Why are you doing this?

Just out of curiosity. The president of the United States is a powerful man, probably the most powerful person on the planet. So everyone seems to have an opinion on who should be the next president of the United States. We
thought it would be interesting to see who would be the next president if the whole world could vote. It’s also a challenge to try to beat the number of voters in the last US elections. So spread the news.

Vote and then check out the results.

 http://www.iftheworldcouldvote.com/

There was a little bit of excitement in our neighborhood this last week – our neighbors, who have lived across the road from us since before Elmer bought this home 30 years ago, sold theirs and moved out. While we did not socialize with them, they have been friendly and good neighbors. I have no idea who is going to move in, so this is the next thing we will be watching.

I also wanted to show off some of the pretty fall colors around us right now when I focused this one.

I talked about fruit the other day – Elmer brought back a selection for me on one of his grocery trips, (forgot to put the grapes in when I took this and they are really good to eat)

The peaches once again were a major disappointment – they look so nice, but were ugly inside and I had to throw them into the compost heap. One Mango and one pear left – they are so yummy!

We have been having not too bad weather lately – at least the sun is shining even if there is no true warmth. It was Angela’s day off and she was ready to get outside too and see something besides work and home, so we decided to take a drive out to our favorite Devan Greenhouse and see what was left there. Not sure if we were even going to pick anything up, but it is a lovely drive, and they are in their last week before closing for the winter – this means big clearance sale. Buy one get one free with many plants already on clearance sale prices.

The back lot already empty as they have brought the trees from this area inside. Here you get a small idea of just how big it is. At the very back are still young plants growing for next season, and the greenhouse here is also part of their production area, not the sales section.

some of their Japanese Maples that had been brought inside.  I love their lacy looking leaves versus the other kinds of Maples they have.

Here is Angela walking down one of the isles of plants, checking out what was left for sale. It really does look empty compared to what is there during their sales seasons.

Would you believe they were selling these Mums for $1.00 each?  Now this is what I spent money on   Bought 10 of them to put around our little birdbath for Fall color, and for inside my livingroom. Better than a bunch of cut flowers in my opinion, and so cheap. Also bought two Delphinium for the same price – they are tiny and no color names on them so if they survive the winter I will be looking forward to see what ones they are.

These are not my photos but came in the mail. Whomever took them did a great job, and I hope does not mind me sharing them in here too.  Just makes me wish I could go there often and see the gardens every season, instead of the once every few years I have been able to.  For me it would take a trip on the ferry to get there, as they are actually on Vancouver Island. I only copied three to share here, but there were several others with them.

Enjoy

Aren’t these colors stunning!  I could lose myself in them just absorbing this beauty.

Just had to share my sister’s photo of her fruit – I had never heard or seen this before and found it fascinating so had to look it up and see what it was all about

Here are the links I like the best if anyone else wants to see what they are all about.

http://www.localharvest.org/store/item.jsp?id=8138

http://www.sanfranciscofoodie.com/scraps/buddhasHand.htm

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/175058/

Sorry I am taking so long to read all the backlog of posts from everyone, but time just is not enough any more. I guess I spend hours online and never seem to cover everything I want.
Yesterday, it was raining, but I found out my two daughters were both home for a change. So I picked the one up with some chili she had made and we went to the other to have a great lunch get together and catch up. It was so lovely to actually be together instead of quick phone calls that are the usual form of contact lately with their busy lives. That was my day gone as far as anything else was concerned

I have a couple of other neat links to share.
This first one is a YouTube of the Digital TV to be in effect by 2009 – are the older people ready for it?

http://www.youtube.com/v/EhTSaaREYag&hl=en&fs=1

And this one is just for fun

The days are flying by again. I just never seem to catch up with everyone anymore, My own life is not that eventfull.  Rain has been coming in waves, seems every othder day it is here, and I was beginning to feel housebound. Surprised Elmer when I told him I wanted to go to the store with him a couple of times This is not a usual thing for me as I really do not like to go grocery shopping.  I did want to look at the fruit – it is getting harder now to find any edible ones I like as the Summer fruit is just about all gone, and the last of the peaches he got for me were either chalky or rotten in the center.  I managed to find a couple of mangoes that look good, pears hopefully good – still a bit green, so have to give them a couple of days to see if they ripen OK, and a couple of small papaya. I’ve eaten one of them – yummy!
While I was there, I spotted some potted plants, and the yellow Lilium Hybrids (friends think their name is Pollyanna) caught my eye – I have the orange ones which I love but not the yellow so I just had to pick one up!

Unfortunately, they did not have any that had unopened buds, so these only lasted a few days, and I see this morning the flowers are done. Will have to find a place for them outside now and hope they come up next Spring for me again.

As it has started to show signs of freezing on some nights, Elmer has put away our fountain. It just looks so empty in that spot, so, after talking a bit, we decided to go out and look for a “simple” cheap birdbath to put their for the winter. Hmmm not that easy to find. We went to several places, and most of them cost even more than our fountain.  But, while in one Nursery I spotted this, and just had to have it too….

Almost purple? A different color than the red and salmon ones I have.  They are strange – depending on which light they are in as to what color they put out. I thought I was seeing things last night when they showed up red in the Livingroom lighting – the first thing I did this morning was to check just to be sure I had not imagined this color LOL  Sure enough, in the sunlight they were back to what they are supposed to be!  There really is a big difference between them and my others, which have started to flower again now they are back inside and in their true winter home in my living room.

Back to looking for that bird bath – we ended up at Canadian Tire as a last resort, and there on their shelf was one box left of a very different kind than we first thought of. Cheap too!

Beleive it or not it was actually raining when I took this. Elmer put it together and we had it out not long after we got home.  The base is for holding potted plants, the big section holds water, the next tray is for birdseed, and under the roof is a Solar lantern – neat! It is made of heavy plastic, and we can move it easily when needed and the fountain is to be put back there. Now we are waiting to see if the birds accept it.

I was so happy to see the sun come out this morning after a full day of pouring rain yesterday. Perfect for Elmer and I to do our civic duty and go to the voting booth. They say there has been a good turn out so far – I do hope this continues for the rest of the day. It is going to be a very close thing if all the news has to say is true. Tonight we will be watching as the results start to come through.  BC up to now has always been of very little count, but they say this year is different. For the first time our 38 districts are going to make or break the outcome.  No wonder the two main contenders flew west to campaign here right up until the last minute. They are going to be some very tired people after today, when all the fuss is over, and they can rest up for a bit.

Saturday, I had to go to the Library again as another of the books I had ordered had come in. This time I took my camera with me as it was quite pretty outside. Glad I did as there were some lovely fall colors to capture.  This one was taken from one of the entrances looking towards our Police station. The larger pic shows off the reflections of some of the trees in the Library gardens, which I thought gives it a nice touch. While few flowers are around, their roses still look pretty too.

Moving to the left this is the scene from the front steps looking out to the Civic Hall I believe.

On the side of their parking lot the Maple trees are in full fall color, as are the small bushes lining their fence line.

Last but not least the reason for name Fall

I am glad I was able to get these as by next week I am sure it will all be gone except for the cleanup.

My life is very quiet lately.
The weather is on again off again rain with much cooler temps, but not yet near freezing. This is when I seem to start hibernating, and have to almost force myself outside.
I did put in an order for a particular book from the library, and they let me know it had come in, so, grabbing the break in weather, and my camera, I went to pick it up. I really am out of whatever it is that gets me going where picture taking is concerned, and just took two.

A squirrel eating something he had found on the library grounds

and the last flowers on their Red Hot Pokers. Mine were finished months ago so this was a delight and a surprise to see. Everything else looked finished. Not even the pretty fall colors there this time, though a lot of the trees are still green.

Home again I decided to take this one of my new Hollyhock – supposed to be a brilliant orange one, it is not quite the color they say, and has taken all summer long to get to this point. At least it is flowering before the frost hits it. This one is in a pot and I am leaving it out there for the winter. It will be interesting to see if it survives and comes back for me next year.