Hackberry Trees, etc. #8

Oh, one more....my new Peggy Martin climber is still full of blooms.

Have a good pumpkin-y day, Charlie....

Enjoy your company.

And let us know about your birthday dinner, Christi...hope your day was great.

Fab-u-loze! My sister surprised us last night and brought spaghetti and all the trimmings with a german chocolate cake. I'll have to eat celery and water for a month.

Hi Sharon,
Great fall pictures. Love the climbing rose.

Hi Christi,
Sounds like you had a great celebration. Am very partial to german chocolate cake. Always have Black Forest cake for my own birthday.

As to pumpkin martinis, Sharon, oh ye of little faith,
they were a big hit - (with Carol and me, that's a certainty, though I suppose it could be that our guests were inordinately polite).

They were made with : vanilla vodka, coffee liqueur, milk and pumpkin puree. We did'nt have a shaker, so we had to use a juice jug. Should have also had some cinnamon sticks, but they were good anyway. Meal was great.

Picture: Carol in action.

Meant to add Sharon,
particularly like the japanese maples. They typically need winter protection where we are, though our friends in Burlington (on Lake Ontario) have a huge one.

Don't know tree, balloon flower.

As you say, the river birch has a very attractive bark. Do get regular birch trees here, but they're susceptible to a pest (a leaf minor). Had to use cygon on them, now happily banned. Have been told the main problem down here, with our birches, is that they are really northern trees that find it tough going in the South. (our South!).

The balloon flower is just a plant, maybe you call them Bellflowers if they grow there. I have white and a deep purple.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/81754/

But like hostas, they are beautiful in fall when they turn golden yellow.

The drink sounds good actually...and yes, cinnamon sticks would have been good, too.

Oh, I know what you mean. Have them and as you say yellow leaves in fall. Tend to cut everthing down, as bloomed in late summer/fall, so easier to check plants and see bulbs in spring.

Not much in bloom now: Arend's monkshood still OK.

Cool little 'scare crow' man....
Very cool.

This hardy chrysanthemum (button hole: Mei Kyo), just coming into bloom, is the last thing to bloom in our garden. It's in full bloom in November, which is too late, because there's nothing else in flower at that time and it's usually too cold to want to stay out in the garden.

Think it's a cat scarecrow, but we've had it a number of years and it's getting a bit tatty.

Just wanted to send you a little bit of Pebbie (died about three years ago, but not forgotten).

Continuing from the vets':

With Pebbie it was so different.
She was as good as gold.
And if the vet said "Pebbie, stick out your tongue,
she'd have done what she was told.

She never lashed out at them.
She was as quiet as a vole.
And people said how sweet she was,
a helpful little soul.

Some people like to bet
on the outcome of a fight,
but if you think Budd was tough
you would not be right,

Even though he weighed a ton
and looked like a blimp,
if any cat entered our yard,
he'd take of like a wimp.

Those little legs would move so fast
and propel him through the door.
And on he went, he did not stop,
till he reached the second floor.

But Pebbie sprang into action,
that little ball of fluff.
Budd's brave little sister,
was made of tougher stuff.

Pebbie dashed straight out the door,
heading for the swine
and round and round the two would go,
cursing all the time.

"How dare you bully my brother"
tough little Pebbs would say.
And when the bully realized just how tough she was,
that bully would run away.

And it was one of those ironies,
that Pebbie, meek and mild,
would turn into a maniac
and act so very wild.

Ahhhhhh....what sweet words. That is a great tribute to both cats, actually!
And very fun to read.

Your words tell stories, paint pictures.
Thank you.

Just closed the last page of "The Shack". Have tried two other times to get into it without success. My sister brought yet another copy last night and insisted I HAD TO READ IT!!

Don't really know what my problem was in the beginning but for me it was a page turner and I read the entire 260 pages + today. I can now see why it has been on the best seller list for 2 years. If you haven't read it, please consider it.

Christi

I certainly don't paint word pictures with the ease with which you do, Sharon,
but it's fun.

As you've said different cats have different personalities. People who don't interact with cats, sometimes don't recognise that.

Below: picture from three or four years ago: Buddy: low-key friendly self and Pebbie (the 1960s? pop song "My baby needs love ---" comes to mind). We used to call this a "dry shampoo".

You are right, Charlie, and that is a great picture. Pebbles is beautiful.

Christi, I read The Shack last year, gave it to all my friends as gifts for Christmas, then read it again during the winter, then read it again just a few weeks ago.

Most people either love it or hate it. I laughed and cried all the way through it every time I read it, and gathered more from it each time. Yes, it is an amazing book, and puts everything in a different perspective. Amazingly so. Something we should have thought all along.

I am glad you read it.

Now Charlie, I could write a story about that picture. And I might...right when you least expect it. So brace yourself...you will never know when the right mood might hit.

Thank you Christi,
read about the book on line. Looks like a very good and useful book.

Also, Christi, Carol wanted me to say "Happy Birthday" to you, from her as well. Sorry I omitted to pass on the message before now.

Charlie

You certainly have a talent Sharon! Actually, quite a number of talents.
Still I think Christi and I do pretty well. From the above, I'm certainly not as capable a reader as Christi.

Got to get back to bulb planting tomorrow, as I keep saying, my least favourite gardening job. Week after next is supposed to have snow and have to see where to dig. Ground won't be frozen for a while.

Nite Sharon and Christi. Back tomorrow,
Charlie

Charlie, my friend. We all have talents.
You need to remember that.

Sleep well, and make sure you feed Buddy before you sleep!

We are having a severe electrical storm right now. Glad to have my laptop unplugged. Can't sleep as the storm is right over us and the thunder is shaking the cabinets.

Charlie, I have to say I am a very fast reader and I don't tend to skim or skip. This was the third time I had started this book and just couldn't get into it. Even purchased the audiobook and downloaded on the iPod. I plugged along the beginning this time and finally got to the story. I didn't like the reader on the audio and will listen to a preview before buying another audio.

I loved your kitty poem. I couldn't do that if my life depended on it.

Sharon, I'm such an old fashioned thinker. Although I liked The Shack for a novel, I'm not so sure about the "new age" type of thinking. Need more of your input.

It will have to be tomorrow, Christi, I have coughed myself into a dither tonight and need to get outta here and get some rest. But tomorrow we'll talk and I'll tell you my take on it. For now, just accept it as a novel. That's what it is, after all.

Be safe in the storm.
Tomorrow will be here soon enough.

Nite now.

Japanese Maple nursery trip yesterday.
Colors are breath taking

more

bought one which DD and SIL planted

Ahhhh...that takes my breath away, so beautiful!

Painting time!!!

Hi All,

Lovely trees and pictures Ge.

Don't know much at all about New Age myself, Christi, but former acquaintance had a New Age shop in Newmarket. She was talking to me one day and the conversation continued with her telling me she had been taken up in a flying saucer over the Uxbridge Triangle (a bit north of here). I have used flying saucers a lot in teaching attitudes to technology and do have an open mind on the matter, but I honestly thought she was joking. My laughter rapidly change to coughing. Next thing I heard (from her husband, at a school science fair I was involved in), was that she'd just been arrested for going after a neighbours kid with a baseball bat. Apparently the kid had been giving her kid a hard time. Mind you, I'm sure this is not typically of New Age proponents! Or, for that matter, typical of protective mothers.

Sharon, hope your coughing is not serious. Look after yourself. Charity begins at home!

Charlie

Hi Sharon and Christi,
Sorry about duplication above.
Busy day: planting bulbs: various work being done in basement: just back from viewing Council meeting.
Better get to bed: got to get up early tomorrow for continuing basement work.
Nite, Charlie

Nite, Charlie...dreary rainy day here, and I am dreary too...
Maybe the sun will shine tomorrow.

Hope at least you got sunshine, Sharon,
but, if not, sure we'll get some, some day.
Rain largely held off and quite mild, so good gardening weather.

Lots of work being done in basement: new insulation and fixing below main floor alcove flooring. Computer is at bottom of stairs, so trying to keep out the guys way. Unbelievable what developers-builders get away with here. We're just fixing the problems they left (20 years ago).

Hope you got your basement all fixed up, Charlie....

Too much rain here, seems a real deluge at least once a day. I am just about tired of it. Temps were in the mid 70's earlier, might be down to the 50's now, but the rain is beating down at some point every day. Sigh...I need some sunshine.

Hope you are all well and dry.
I don't like Halloween.
Bah Humbug!

Me either. News tonight says this was the rainest, cloudiest October ever.

And this rain does nothing for my aching bones.

Hi Sharon and Christi,
Chaotic few days: other work was fine, but unfortunately was a problem with insulation they started to put in basement. Carol noticed, from a label, that it was combustible and had to be sealed in (e.g. by plaster board). When I checked with manufactureer, Dow, was told it should not be used in an unfinished basement. We had made it clear to the contractor, before starting, that we did not want to finish the basement. So that part of job's still waiting.
Had a lot of rain here this morning, as well.
Had better get to bed, not finished gardening.
Charlie

Sharon's birthday: Nov 20.

Aaarrrggghhhh....what a thought for this hour of the morning, Charlie.

But good morning anyway...I think I see the sunshine peeping through the clouds.

Some contractors don't seem to have ears that listen.

You all have a good day...I'll be back later this afternoon before the halloween goblins get me.
Ugh...I really don't like halloween.

Carol getting ready.
Simple pattern this year.
Only took two hours!

Making the most of it.
More pumpkin martinis.
Try one?

A mellow fellow.

Pumpkin.

Ten years back had over a hundred kids come. Now only about 37. Seen them growing and grow up.
A friendly member of the SWAT team.

You look like the mellow fellow, Charlie...I love the purple vest. Pumpkin bat is great too, though I had to lie down to see it. Wonder why that happens?

Nah. You go ahead and keep the pumpkin martinis, I don't even like pumpkin pie, though I do enjoy pumpkin bread sometimes.

Didn't know you all had halloween, too....Do you also have trick or treaters? I must have had about a hundred kids...finally I turned all my front lights off and that stopped it. Three hours of knocks on the door drove the cats nutz.

Me too.

Not sure who was what, but an amiable bunch of characters.

We cross posted...I see you do have trick or treat.

Cute little guy.