Autumn in Washington

Here is how it was a couple of months ago---105 degrees as we worked in the yard. With no rain for many days, we were enjoying the petunias, lilies, roses, and working on weeds. It's not like that anymore!

It's now cooler and the summer flowers are fading. But the fall color has been spectacular!

Our maple has turned from bronze to almost bright red.

And the trees in the back are turning to gold and dropping their leaves. However, some plants decide that fall is the time to bloom. And some are still blooming from summer. I cut hydrangeas and white dahlias to bring in today.

We spent many hours during the summer clearing an area in our yard along the neighbor's fence. It has been covered with wild plants since we moved in. We left the salal, which is a native broad-leaf plant. It is harvested and used in floral arrangements, so it is quite pretty. 

Paul planted 140 daffodil bulbs to intermingle with the salal. Can't wait to see how it looks in the spring. He also bought some tulips at Costco to add to the mix.

Maybe you can see the white straws he put in the ground where the bulbs are. The green plants are the salal.

This is called burning bush. We have several. They are green in summer and then turn bright red. After dropping their leaves, they have tiny red berries on the gray-green stems.

I think this is almost the last rose of summer!

We're looking forward to Halloween and Thanksgiving! (Not to mention Christmas when we will be having company from California. Yeah!)

I recently made this little quilt to hang on our house by the front door.