October Garden Wind-up

October Twenty-Ten: The rainiest on record for our piece of the High Desert.

Two weekends of downpours followed by gales stripped the peach tree of all but a handful of leaves. Guess it's time to haul out the rake.

I'll spare you the sad, sad, SAD sight of tomato plants ambushed by our first killing frost. Instead you can enjoy the rescued Moonstone roses gracing our table.  (The silver pitcher isn't a photo prop, it's my secret weapon for drinking enough water daily!)

That's my lone butternut squash from this year's garden. Seeing all the other teensy squash at the grocery store made me feel a lot better about its small size. I was looking forward to squash soup this winter. 

This October has been good for color--check out the burning bush.

Worth the wait every year!  Our three goldfish are "pond"-ering the merits of moving south for the winter.  (They don't know it but I've already made reservations for them at the Queen Mother's pond.)

These large yellow chrysanthemums are the glory of the garden right now.  Thank heavens for perennials!

They harmonize nicely with the sugar maple leaves swirling around the lawn.

You've reached the end of my October garden tale.  (Um, better make that the end of Kharma's tail swishing some purple mums.)

I always hate to see it end, but my garden is going out in a blaze of glory this year.

Now I'm heading over to the Tuesday Garden Party.  You're invited too.

Punnily funnily yours,