What's Outside?

Oh I've enjoyed reading every one of these posts ☺

I’m a bit disappointed that nobody has the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, or herds of wildebeest sweeping majestically across.... Nobody here from Torquay, I guess?

Maggie maybe...?

I see an Anna's hummingbird flitting to and fro from a magnolia tree to my hummingbird feeder. Beyond is a house with red, blue and yellow painted clapboard siding and next to that is a white painted house. Lots of maple trees in various shades of oranges and reds amid tall green firs. Then blue snow capped mountains beneath a blue sky with a few fluffy clouds.

It looks lovely, Minimoon.
The view from my kitchen window is our small garden, the grass looking lush again, the hedge filling out still and in need of a trim but full of house sparrows and a robin, and my summer plants in their pots still in bloom. ?

There's a squirrel on the bird table, and next-door's kitten on our patio, just watching. It's sunny, my washing is on the line, and there's a magpie sitting on the fence.

A blackbird splashing in the birdbath with his mate sitting patiently on the fence awaiting her turn.

Some beautiful tall purple flowers which look like delphiniums but are sort of growing as a shrub??

And what once was a lush green lawn now covered in brown patches thanks to my female canine companion!

From the back decking, I have a squirrel eating the birds nuts after breaking their feeder. My garden is still colourful, acer is looking superb and the "bottlebrush plant" not sure of its correct name, is full of red "brushes" Trees are just beginning to turn so Husband will be busy clearing them in the coming weeks.

From my kitchen!!!!! My drive is full of Builders vans, cement bags, bricks and a pile of wood which in a previous life made up my bedroom wardrobes and drawers!! I have 2 extremely tall trees and front of drive one is a scots pine the other a fir, they are now well over 60 foot and as we live on a main road they screen out traffic and noise. They are home to various birds nests, and squirrels.

My red maple, more and more red from day to day. Yellow berries on a tall rowan tree. A lot of pots waiting for me to finish planting next spring's bulbs. A couple of wonky fence panels, needing to be replaced.

Out my front windows, which includes my kitchen window, I see a forest of fir trees across the road. Just below the windows is my garden, now bare after a weekend of clearing all the greenery from summer.
Light snow is falling
Must check to see if there are any strawberries left to pick. We had an awesome crop of strawberries this year. Managed to keep the wasps away with hanging traps.

I’ve got to ask, PageTurner. Snow and strawberries in October - where are you?

The wheelie bins..
Majestic and brooding; huddled together like brothers in arms.
Around them is a fortress - a wall. Pale brick, with the top crumbling away and about to fall down after centuries of keeping the bins safe from those who would spill out their contents.

Just east of the Rocky Mountains in the US. We have unpredictable weather. One day it will be freezing and the next day it will be 60 degrees?

Grapes, nice and ripe and juicy. I must pick some tomorrow.
The roses are still blooming and even the clematis had a rather feeble second attempt at flowering. The fuschias are better now than they were in the summer, which must be due to the rain we had.
Sparrows, pigeons and magpies - nothing very exciting in the way of birds at the moment.
I did see a tree-creeper last week, not from the kitchen window though, from the front window.

the "bottlebrush plant" not sure of its correct name, is full of red "brushes"
Ours finished flowering ages ago
I think it's called Calistemon

From my kitchen sink I just look out onto the driveway and the fence, which urgently needs painting/ staining, and that divides our drive from the back wall of my neighbours property so not an attractive outlook. Fortunately I do not spend much time there! I prefer to look out of the back doors of the kitchen at the garden where the roses are still giving, the nasturtiums are a glorious burning orange amongst the fading asters, the ivy is full of chattering sparrows and my neighbours' cats are lolling in the catnip!

A manky old shed. Sometimes a glimpse of the neighbours.

Just enough strawberries for our yogurt tomorrow morning.

Wow, PageTurner. and I thought our weather could be unpredictable! Enjoy your breakfast. We had a good crop of berries in the allotment this year, so I might dig some out of the freezer for my porridge.

Raspberries, that is, the strawberries were eaten as they were picked.

We didn't get any raspberries! As soon as they ripened the DGC picked them and are them. Our strawberries were very poor this year. I don't think we'll bother with them next summer.

Maggiemaybe and Minimoon, do you cut back your raspberry plants in the autumn? We planted raspberry plants this spring and they grew 5 feet tall but no berries. Just wondering why no berries.

I’ve consulted my gardener (DH), and he advises leaving yours this year and fingers crossed they’ll fruit next year. He cuts back any dead canes that haven’t fruited from the Summer variety, but cuts the Autumn variety right back to the base after fruiting. This is all a foreign language to me.

Some of our raspberries were very large and delicious but others were tiny and not good at all. DH has dug up the ones that were not very good; they were a different variety I think.
We had a reasonable crop, but not an over-abundance this year. I am guarding the ones in the freezer for the Christmas trifle!