#2982 post every day in November - day 1

my wee calendar

Wow! It's November! 

This month I am challenging myself to post something here every day. It's a throwback to the olden days of blogging when November was National Blog Posting Month (NABLOPOMO). I don't know if that's a thing anymore, but I think it will be fun to take the time and the energy to share something here daily. I imagine it will be quite a mixed bag of stuff that shows up. I'm going to enjoy doing it, and I hope all seven of you like it too.

It's 3:00 on Saturday afternoon, and I can't help but think the time passes way more quickly on the weekend than it does during the week. I didn't sleep in too late - it was probably around 8:30 when I got out of bed, and since then the hours have passed by in a hurry. I played with the dogs, I had brunch here at home, and I've been outside getting the potted plants on the deck ready for their winter sleep. I haven't done this before, but I'm hoping it will work out. I have some rocks that I've put on four of the plants, and I covered the other two with high quality topsoil, of which I have quite a lot right now. We had a good frost earlier in the week, and some of the plants suffered. It's a really pretty day here so I took about 90 minutes to trim and winterize these six plants. There are two pots of marigolds, a geranium, an Icelandic poppy, a black eyed Susan, and a tomato plant. 

ready for winter?

Some of the plants came through the frost well. The two Russian sage plants, the guara, the catmint, and one of the coreopsis plants are still blooming. The other coreopsis isn't blooming, so I cut it down and put some white rocks around part of it. The other plant with white rocks is a lavender. She still has a pretty twig that isn't blooming, but it is still vibrant. I will watch these plants over the next week and prep their winter beds when they seem more ready. In the meantime, I will enjoy them!

still blooming, not quite ready for winter!

This past week with the frost and the colder temperatures, the leaves on the maple trees in my yard, and the leaves in the trees around the neighborhood, turned yellow nearly overnight.  The sugar maple in the forefront is really yellow. The northern maple in the back isn't quite there yet, but it's changing.

fall colors in my backyard

We have been having work done in our backyard. MT put up that pretty cedar fence you can see in the background, and along with our contractor, he put in what will be a nearly 60' long flower bed. That's why we have so much topsoil. They built the flower bed along the fence, and there's another good size bed on the side of the deck to the right of the above photo. In addition, the sprinkler system has been updated, flat stones have been placed under the fence to aid in mowing and to decrease the need for weed whacking, and the whole mulberry bush was removed. We'll have to patch the hole in the fence and do a few other things before we stop work for winter, but it's coming along. I think the contractor will be finished next week, then MT will have some things he will work on to wrap it up. I'm excited about the changes and looking forward to making our yard pretty with pollinator-friendly plants in the spring.

If you were expecting to see a vacation memories post today, come back tomorrow. I'll be writing about exploring the castle district of Prague. There are just three more vacation memory posts to do - the one about Prague that I'll write tomorrow and two about  Amsterdam. I'll post those on Sunday, Wednesday, and Sunday (probably.)

Did you have any trick or treaters last night? We had zero. It's the second year in a row that no one has come to our house for candy.  I didn't even see any kids out on the neighborhood at all. I don't think there are many kids in the neighborhood. My neighbors have kids, but it didn't seem like they were home last night. 

That's all for today. I hope you'll check in tomorrow :)