Leaves, leaves, and more leaves

The leaves are down, raked, shredded, and spread around some plants and heaped on the compost pile.  Who remembers jumping into huge piles of leaves as kids? We had 2 large maple trees in our yard and an older lady, 2 houses down, also had 2 large trees. We'd rake all our leaves into a pile and then rake her leaves and somehow get them up to our house.  I don't remember how we accomplished that.  Do kids today realize how much fun a pile of leaves is? We'd spend days playing in them.  I also don't remember how the pile was ever removed from the front yard or where it was removed to.  Every year, I wish for a child to be around so I would have an excuse to jump in a pile of leaves and not look like I've lost my mind!  Just the smell of takes me back to those childhood days.

 Leaves surrounding and covering my alyssum.

 Someplace in here, look real hard - you'll see some impatiens peeking through.

 Mums and alyssum surrounded by leaves.

A Fall "Easter Egg" Hunt

Autumn is here and that means it's time for the squirrel's annual "Autumn Nut Hunt", similar to our Easter Egg hunt.  Everywhere I go in my yard,  discover beechnuts hidden in the oddest places.  Here are three pictures of hidden nuts. 
A few days ago, I was pulling down the dead morning glory vines and was rudely bopped on the head by a beechnut hidden in the vines.  These only stay hidden a few days, when the squirrels get hungry, they find them and make quite a mess scattering the outer layers as they get to the prize inside. 
(I had more, but they were in my camera program on my computer and my computer crashed. Don't ya' love these computers! I thought I had everything backed up, but forgot about all those pictures sitting in my camera program waiting to be saved to a folder. )

Halloween is almost here!

I'd like you to meet some of my Halloween friends.

Here are the bride and groom. They sing "I've Got You Babe" by Sonny & Cher and sway their bony heads.

 Here is our little ghoul riding her tricycle

 Mr. Count, one of our greeters

Here's our other 2 greeters

A couple of witches hangin' out in the flowers

Rat and pumpkin head keeping company in the flower pot

I made this from a small birdhouse gourd

I made these 2 cuties from light bulbs

I hope everyone has a fun and ghoulish Halloween!

Goblin's Delight Cupcakes

This is a fun Halloween party treat. It's also good any time of the year,  just change the cake flavor and filling color. Frosting can also be added.

FILLING 8 oz. pkg. cream cheese 1/3 c. sugar 1 egg 1/8 tsp. salt 2 drops each red and yellow food color 1 c. chocolate chips      CUPCAKES 1 1/2 c. unsifted all purpose flour 1 c. sugar 1/3 c. cocoa 1 tsp. baking soda 1/2 tsp. salt 1/3 c. vegetable oil 1 c. water 1 TBS. vinegar 1 tsp. vanilla Filling: Combine cream cheese, sugar, eggs, salt, food color in small bowl. Beat until smooth. Add chocolate chips. Set aside. Cupcakes: Combine ingredients in order listed in large mixing bowl. Blend well on low speed. Fill 24 paper muffin cups 2/3 full with batter. Spoon about 1 tablespoon cheese filling onto each cupcake. Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in cake portion comes out clean. VARIATION This year, instead of making chocolate cupcakes, I used a spice cake  mix.  Then I frosted them with buttercream frosting flavored with cinnamon.  They were delicious!

Good Morning, Glory

Good Morning, Glories. What a treat to wake up in the morning with these flowers, all of us turning our faces to the sun. These photos were taken a couple weeks ago. Some of my morning glories are still flowering while others have succumbed to the cold.  I find it strange that when you plant morning glories from a seed packet, you are instructed to nick the seeds or soak them so as to help them germinate better through their very hard outer layer.  My morning glories have  no trouble re-seeding themselves year after year with no help from me.  I let most of them grow where they land, only pulling out the ones that will take over other plants.  In this first photo are my well-behaved morning glories, growing where they're supposed to.

Meandering through the alyssum

Climbing a small shepherd's hook and trailing off into the boxwood

Climbing the lilac bush

Wrapped around another shepherd's hook and vining through the Russian Sage

Twisting through the snowball bush

In and around the turtleheads

Up yet another shepherd's hook and over to check out the birdhouse

October Sunrise

I was eating breakfast one morning last week before work and happened to look out my back window. The sunrise was amazing, so of course I had to stop eating to grab my camera and go outside. Didn't even bother to put shoes on, just wandered around the dewy back yard in my slippers snapping pictures.

Letchworth State Park

I took a trip to Letchworth State Park, one of New York's wonderful state parks. It's 2 hours away from home.  Spent a wonderful day there with my daughter. The colors aren't at peak yet, but it was still beautiful. I hope you enjoy my pictures and this little break from gardening. A fellow blogger, The Violet Fern,  posted pictures from her hike through Letchworth last week. Jump on over to her blog for more photos. http://thevioletfern.blogspot.com/2010/10/take-hike-at-letchworth.html