COLTON PLAYS WITH APPLE IN SNOW

today...

GROMIT VISITS COLTON & LUNA

gromit, puppy of friend....

count me out!

beginning to mix it up....

  

  

fun was had!

COLTON CLEANED UP

before

after

BIG HURRICANE SANDY POST

we had a hurricane on october 29th... mom took this...

here's me today standing next to a felled oak's roots...

 before the hurricane, the tithonia had finally flowered, after reaching almost 20 ft tall, on the right...

i knew tithonia would get knocked down, so i brought in many flowers before the storm...

the painting is by one of my daughter's friends...

then the hurricane hit, took away our power for 11 days, and a few shingles from the roof...

we were so lucky... but the tithonia did fall....

we have a generator, so things were not so bad... but luna had that "omg, how long will this last" kind of look...

whereas colton was his ever sunny self...

a week after the hurricane, us still without power, we had a nor'easter...

and the snow melted beautifully the next day... 

here's how the potager looked last weekend, after we got power back... soon i'll be stringing the lights!

COLTON VS TEDDY BEAR

haven't been posting much as i started night classes...

hubs captured this wood pecker with the new camera...

colton after his last grooming...

luna, looking really trim after keeping colton in line...

um, i think we know who won this one... thanks for the teddy bear, mom!

colchicum 'water lily'

the lespedeza was quite stunted this year by the drought, so was less tall, but just as showy.

DOGGIE POOL PARTY

our town hosts a doggie pool party annually a week after the pool closes...

colton has yet to swim, as he's only 7 months old (and 57 lbs)

would i be able to coerce him to enter the water?

(luna, our whippet, likes water, but not swimming)

well, everyone else is doing it!

at last he did go in... as luna watched...

he didn't like the steps, however... we'll stick to the pond!

THE DAMAGE DONE

ACK!

the culprit was humanely removed... but no broccoli this year...

PAINTED LADY POSES

i was so happy to see this today:

and the painted lady was quite cooperative for a short time...

even finding the best light...

the potager is in a wild state... 

tithonia, at right, is 9 feet tall and still not blooming...

 this butternut is oddly attached to the stem along its length

lucky spider, unlucky wasp...

echinacea 'green jewel' lasts a long time in or out of a vase...

cleome 'violet queen' which self-sowed (and how.)

COAL-TON

katydid on the house... taken with flash the only light...

"i wasn't sticking my nose in the charcoal bag, it's ash wednesday!"

right after i saw this photo, i trimmed luna's nails... 

the tomatoes are burgeoning and i'm giving them away...