October holiday

At my front entryway
there is 
no pumpkins to be carved

Carving a face pumpkin was
so enjoyed by my
late husband.
Since his passing there 
are only decorative pumpkins. 

A friend recently visited and brought me three miniature pumpkins she grew in her garden. She shared that the seeds came from a pumpkins she was given. Perhaps I will save seeds to plant in my garden next year. With some searching the name of this miniature pumpkin is Jack Be Little*.

*Each flattened, deeply ribbed 

fruit measures only 5cm (2") tall

and about 13cm (5") across the top. 

If cured fully on the vine, 

the fruits will last as ornaments 

for as long as twelve months! 

Jack Be Little makes perfect 

little bright orange pumpkins 

for fall decorations, 

and each plant produces 

up to eight fruits.

One of my long time local friends celebrates her birthday on this holiday. She has had Halloween parties in the past where she encourages everyone to wear costumes. I recall Dwight often attended while I stayed home. Since I am naturally a very early riser I go to sleep quite a few hours before my late husband did.

When we as youngsters of course we use to canvas our neighborhood for candy and other offered treats. My mother use to make candied apples to hand out or sometimes popcorn balls. Either were deliciously tasty! When we lived in two different Iowa towns all the kids flocked to our house early for their Halloween "trick or treat". They did not want to miss out on whatever my mom made that year.

For all of you birders out there, I have recently read a fabulous book. The title is Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World by Christian Cooper. which I highly recommend reading. I must confess that I kept National Audubon Society The SIBLEY Guide to Birds (written and illustrated by David Allen Sibley) within easy reach to look up the birds he mentioned as he often traveled about our planet, Mother Earth.

Asarum caudate
(Western wild ginger)
along the North side of my house

While hanging clothes out on my retractable clothesline earlier this month I looked at the plantings along the North side of my house. There in all it subtle glory was a flower on the Western wild ginger that my friend in Pt. Reyes Station invited me to dig up. Not wanting to have only one I dug up two clumps. One of the clumps is quite challenged where it is planted. Hopefully next year it will have settled in more and also have a flower blossom.  

As this October holiday arrives may we each enjoy a belly

Waiting

I am waiting the arrival of a truckload of wood chips. The entire yard will then be "refreshed" as the owner of the company that prunes the tall hedge along my East fence in the back said when he was here.

My friend Pete loaned me a very large tarp that I spread out in the area where I wish the company to empty a truckload of chips. I can hardly wait, waiting is not my strong suit, to begin loading the chips into my wheelbarrow to spread over the entire yard.

I thought this Roger Red grape leaf stunningly beautiful. The Fall color is primarily the reason I planted two of these plants on either side of the trellis that Dwight built specifically for these two grape plants. 

The actual grapes are quite small and not really to my taste. However the birds certainly do enjoy eating them.

On this gorgeous Fall day, now that the thick fog has burned off, the clothes are drying on the clothesline. And my feeling is that all is "right with the world" so I have a

Ahhhhh . . . Relief

Not long ago I was watering the front yard. I noted the Pinyon Pine I had purchased and decided not to plant in the ground but in a clay pot. My thinking at the time was that I could lug the pot inside, once the tree was big enough, and decorated it as my holiday tree. I totally spaced out how very slowly Pinyon Pines grow.

Pinyon Pine in clay pot

Pinus monophylla (Pinyon pine)
out of the clay pot
and into the ground

Once the tree had emitted "Ahhh . . . Relief" I set the empty clay pot along the road. As I was watering thoroughly the newly plant tree a man stopped in front of the clay pot. He asked if I was getting rid of it. "Yes" was my reply and he picked it up. As he did so he said "I hope I can carry this and finish my walk. This will be great in my garden." I am always so ecstatic when something I no long want or have "room for" is appreciated by someone else.

The clouds in this area
are nothing short of spectacular!

Dwight securing our Christmas tree atop our car. Our routine was to walk about an area on the Eastern side of Nevada State Route 338. Once we have declared "this one" we would saw it off, just before we returned to our home from the Mono Lake Basin. It had become our tradition to spent a month here in my favorite place on Mother Earth. There are numerous places to hike. Some of our walking was on a sandy road used to truck out cattle from designated pastures.

As we brought our tree already secured in the Christmas tree stand thorough a narrow front door into the house we always had a good