Cold Winter Touches The North Country

Of course I knew it was coming, yet still I was surprised to see the frost all over the Rugosa roses when I went out to do the morning chores:

 The leaves were frosted and the magenta buds were covered with icy crystals:

 Some of the flowers had wilted to the point of being unrecognizable:

 Fergus and Seamus watched me from their frosty yard as I began the morning chores:

There were only two open Daylilies left, and they were wilted and covered in ice:

 And the grass crunched underfoot as I walked to the barn:

 Sadly, the sunflowers, which had put on such a late season show, were done for the year:

 I walked the little horses out to their corral and discovered that their stock tank was covered in ice. Remy and Blue were not amused, but I figured it would melt once the sun was fully up:

The cattle were hungry and collected at the barn, demanding grain:

 I let them have some, then shooed them back outside as I carried hay to the horse corral. Most of the cattle followed me to the corral, hoping to steal that armload of hay. I guess they did not want to eat frozen grass:

 I tossed the hay in for the horses without giving the cattle any of it. Ruby knew what to do, and immediately went for a breakfast of warm milk:

Glorious October

October, sort of the opposite of March, comes in like a lamb and goes out like a lion. This year, early October brought lots of Monarch butterflies. This one was in the pasture, near the compost pile:

 And a number of them swarmed the New England Asters in the front yard:

 Monarchs don't hold still often, and usually close their wings when they do, so I was excited to get some nice photos of them on the Asters:

 And the new, baby roses put out a last burst of flowers. This one was the Emily Carr:

And the Morden Sunrise:

 The Rugosa roses on the side of the house also continued to bloom:

 The giant sunflowers were almost finished blooming and their seed was now feeding the wild birds, but a few tiny miniature sunflowers continued to bloom at their feet:

 Perhaps the last vase of flowers to go to church this year consisted of some small sunflowers, three kinds of roses (Morden Sunrise, Emily Carr and a Morden Blush bud), one Delphinium, New England Asters and a branch of dark red leaves from the Ninebark bush:

And the local scenery took on the look of October with roadside displays of pumpkins for sale:

 Red Sumac and purple New England Asters along the road:

 I stopped at a bridge over the St. Regis River to take this photo:

 Then I walked out toward the middle of the bridge to get more of the river in the picture. October in the north country is a wonderful time of year:

Beauty As We Move Into Autumn

The little garden where I'd removed the giant stump (well, most of it anyway) was slowing down and the Yarrow appeared to be mostly finished blooming for the year:

 There were a few white flowered plants, but I feared they'd drop their seed and increase in number, so I cut off any remaining white flower stalks, leaving the fancier colors, which I prefer:

 The fantail pigeons have finished nesting and all the babies but one appeared to be on their own, no longer requiring their parents to feed them:

 Alas, they began to look kind of shopworn and unhealthy, so I put medication into their water:

The little hens still look plenty healthy, so I haven't given them any medication:

 Their egg laying has dropped to about one small egg per day. Soon it will be no eggs at all:

 Many flowers are still blooming, so I brought three more vases of them to church. This one included Frans Hals Daylilies, Tree Hydrangea and some of the very smallest sunflowers:

 Green sepals from former Rose Mallows, purple (wild) New England Asters, pink Rose Mallows, Tree Hydrangea and two colors of roses (magenta and orange):

All sunflowers, various sizes and colors:

 Far less attractive was the barn floor, soaked with horse urine and manure. I was able to scoop up most of it with the tractor, but had to fork it into the bucket as I got toward the end:

 A giant puffball appeared beneath the bottom wire of the electric fence alongside the gravel road. It grew rapidly. Last time one grew there, the Amish woman from down the road asked for it (many people love to eat them) but so far this year she hasn't asked. I don't find them edible at all. They look like Styrofoam and I found them to be just about as tasty as Styrofoam:

We've had a lot of Monarch butterflies this year. They are flying everywhere but don't generally hold still long enough for me to get a photo. This one landed on the Frans Hals Daylilies, and held still just long enough for me to get a picture:

The Wonderful World Of September

Sunflowers galore, with Seamus and Fergus watching from inside their fenced yard:

The fantail pigeon population has grown a great deal, with more births than deaths this summer. I will have to advertise some for sale very soon:

It takes many hours to mow the whole lawn and I am hoping this was the last mowing of the year. I parked the mower and came in for lunch and a nap before I resumed the job:

 
Japanese Knotweed may be one of the worst of all invasive species, but it is kind of pretty this time of year nonetheless:

And the sunflowers are glorious:

The tree on the north side of the house is producing Golden Delicious apples:

On the south side of the house, my dwarf Red Delicious produced - wait a minute, these are not Red Delicious apples! It turned out that a neighboring, taller tree had sent out a long branch which covered the dwarf tree:

The Rugosa roses are still blooming, but at this time of year, they have other colors to offer also:

Plantain-Leaved Sedge, also known as Seersucker Sedge has grown by the barn door for as long as I've been here, but I just learned what it was:

 If you wondered why it is sometimes called Seersucker Sedge, it is because the leaves are puckered/gathered, like seersucker fabric:

New York Asters began to bloom:

Every day I kept getting more and more sunflowers - and this despite the many I've cut for flower arrangements:

A Peaceful Time Of Year

Our temperatures have been gradually getting cooler and we've had more rain. The Cliff Swallows and Redwing Blackbirds have disappeared, the Starlings are flocking and the Goldfinches suddenly seem to be everywhere. Blue and Remy continue to spend their days in the corral. I dare not let them out until almost all the green grass is gone lest they get laminitis (founder) again:

But they seem content, and all the extra handling they've gotten has them behaving beautifully:

The cattle are fat and contented, though the flies are a persistent problem:

Little Ruby is growing rapidly but Scarlett, her mom, is still swollen with more milk than the little one can drink. That won't last, though, as Ruby grows and wants more milk:

I planted Armenian Basket Flower seeds this spring but none came up. I waited a long time for them, then bought some half price Red Hot Poker roots to replace them. The four Red Hot Pokers came up, although I worried that they weren't hardy enough to endure our winters. Then one day I said, "Wait a minute - those aren't Red Hot Poker leaves." I looked online and discovered they were Armenian Basket Flower (AKA Giant Yellow Knapweed) leaves after all. Four of them were growing and one now seems to be sending up a flower stalk:

Some neighbors came to collect all my windfall apples (that 55 gallon drum was almost full, as were a number of pails and coolers). They will feed them to their pigs:

Flowers are almost done for the year, but I managed to put together three vases full to bring to church on Sunday. This one included mini-sunflowers, pink Rose Mallows and Tree Hydrangeas:

All sunflowers, but various colors. Someone from church had a death in the family the previous night, so these flowers went to him after the service:

Peony leaves (turning autumn red), various colors of Yarrow, blue Delphinium and Rugosa roses:

These baby fantail pigeons were not siblings, but they had found each other, established a friendship and slept together in a nest. I found it heart warming:

The flock is now so large that I will have to sell some as soon as the babies are all on their own: