Fall Flowers

It's been a good year for my flowers out in front by the street too. I wish I had more mums, but the phlox, black-eyed susans, and autumn sedum are having a good year. I have some asters for the first time this year. They are nearly ready to open, so I'm anxious to see what they look like. After an early morning at church, it was nice to watch a little football and take a nap this afternoon. Then we went back to church for a book group about "The Shack", a book many in the congregation read this summer. It is always interesting to hear the different perspectives people have on something they've read. Tonight we took a nice walk around the lake. It sure gets dark a lot earlier these days. I wish I had brought my camera along, it was quite picturesque as the sun went down over the lake.

What a Difference a Day Makes

I had to show pictures of this bush in our yard. I don't remember it being such a bright red other years, but it is about the last color I have in the back yard so I have really been enjoying it this week. Incidentally, my flash went off on the picture on the left. I took it after work yesterday, around 4:45, and since it starts getting dark so early I needed flash. It is so strange to have it completely dark outside by 5:15 or so.

Our Trek to Duluth

We had a wonderful trip to Minneapolis and then to Duluth over the last weekend. I'm pretty proud of some of the pictures I got. The weather was great the whole time and the fall colors were spectacular. I forgot to carry my camera with me in Minneapolis, but here are some from Duluth.
We visited Glensheen Mansion pictured above. It was built in the early 1900's by the Congdon family. It was lavish at the time and worth millions today. Unfortunately, the youngest daughter and one of her nurse's were killed there in 1977 and that has become one of the reasons for it's notoriety today. It is now owned by the University of Minnesota Duluth where we were visiting with SD. She won't be going to UMD, but I''m glad we got the chance to check it out. The mansion had a beautiful little garden with many varieties of Dahlias. I was surprised to see them blooming so beautifully so late in the year. They must have been about 8" across.

Here are a few pictures I took while on the lakewalk in the downtown area. They still have a lighthouse at the entrance to the harbor. The sailboat had just sailed from the harbor under the aerial lift bridge and out into Lake Superior. It was very windy that day, so I'm sure they were moving fast once out in the lake. The city has developed the lakewalk in the last 15 years or so and it provides many beautiful vistas of the lake. I had a little trouble arranging my pictures the way I wanted. The statue below is of Leif Erickson, true "discoverer" of America. The sandy walk was at the end of a skinny island on the south side of the lake. We traveled the length of the island after driving over the lift bridge. All in all it was a great get-away and we spent a lot of time just relaxing at the hotel too. It was so great to not have to worry about work, cooking, the dog, or being anywhere on schedule.

Leaf Therapy

The fall colors are at their peak right now here in southeast Minnesota. This one red leaf outside my back door caught my eye. I wonder if the rest of the vine will turn red too or just this one brave little leaf. Yesterday I bagged 5 huge bags of leaves, but with today's strong winds you can't tell. I find it rather therapeutic to rake leaves. You can always tell what you've accomplished, having a clear lawn and bags of leaves to show for it, but it takes no real mental effort, so the mind can wander to other things. I was teasing SD, that I came up with a theme for her grad party. I'm really getting ahead of myself with that one since I should be thinking about TB's confirmation in a couple of weeks. Besides that no one really has a theme for their grad party. I was thinking more of her invitations and something to do with rock-climbing. Last night at dinner we were throwing around some ideas...Scaling New Heights...Climbing Towards the Future...etc. etc. Any other ideas? After dinner we went to a choral concert and really enjoyed it. Our favorite piece was "Agnus Dei" arranged by Barber if you're familiar with it. It was really beautiful, especially with the strings accompanying it.

A busy weekend

It was quite the busy weekend around here. It was homecoming weekend, so that meant a parade Friday afternoon, game Friday night, and the dance on Saturday night. It also meant getting college son to and from college to spend the weekend. I had a women's retreat most of the day on Saturday. I wouldn't have gone, but I was the only one from my church on the planning committee, so I was obligated. After I got back, I fixed daughter's hair and make-up for the dance and spent the rest of the night on the couch. Sunday we had obligations at church all morning, an afternoon baseball game for TB, and then DH and I drove CS back to school. So a few highlights:
* The weather was perfect for the parade, game, retreat, dance, and the drive to the cities. A few clouds here and there, but the fall colors are getting so pretty.
*The dress turned out pretty well. Her friends thought it was "retro", I don't get that, but she looked nice in it. Her date's tie turned out a little wonky, but I think he just wore it for pictures. He brought me flowers as well, not sure what to make of that, but it was a nice gesture.
*The retreat was nice; held at a church camp in a beautiful area fairly nearby. There were several friends there and as I said the weather was nice. I didn't benefit from a true retreat on a spiritual basis as I would have liked, but there were too many contributing factors for that to happen.
*Lastly we always enjoy taking CS back to school on a Sunday night. We usually take him out for dinner before we drop him off and it is a nice chance to catch up. We went to an Indian place with a buffet last night which was kind of a stretch for a couple of Iowa farm kids. It was okay, but a lot of new flavors and some of it was really spicy.

Lovely Fall Day

It is a beautiful day here today. We got some much needed rain last night, so everything seems very crisp and clean and the sky is a brilliant blue. I hope this nice weather will hold for the homecoming game Friday night. TB's marching band puts on a special show after the game. College son is coming home for the weekend for the first time since going back to school. The dress turned out good enough for Senior Daughter to wear, so I am very happy about that. It may be awhile before I tackle something like that again. I'm anxious to have the time to get back to some quilting. I have many projects waiting for me and I would especially like to make something for fall. I finished a wall-hanging this summer that I am rather proud of, there are quite a few errors as usual, but it's finished. It took me a long time as usual. I'm a firm subscriber to the "Better finished than perfect" philosophy. It was intended as a spring/Easter wall-hanging. I finally finished it in the middle of summer ( a couple of years after the Easter in question). I decided to hang it up for awhile anyway. I think I will take it down today and bring out my Fall decorations. I was inspired by Joan and her beautiful Fall decor. Usually it nears Halloween before I get things out. Ha