The Great Outdoors

Now that we are covered in snow, I'm finally getting around to a late Summer/early Fall post.

We tried to grow corn for the first time this year. See the little tassels of silk? Well, that's about as big as the ears got. It was one row of corn and we harvested 3 mini ears of corn.  Not all that satisfying!

We do have success every year with cherry tomatoes and regular tomatoes. These plants are started by seed indoors in March and transplanted into pots on our deck. As you can see, they grow as tall as the roof.

One odd thing about this summer: our deck was a filthy mess and we can't figure out why. Did the usual powerwashing in the spring and within a few weeks, it would look like this.  You can see the actual color of the deck under the table (the round circle is where the umbrella stand sat). My husband ended up having to clean the deck multiple times before we had parties. Never had this happen before, so I'm unsure if we are having an increased problem with pollution in the form of acid rain or if it's pollen causing this.

I took this photo about a month ago in our front yard. A lone begonia growing in the rocks, of all places. I don't like begonias, so we have never planted any here, which makes it all the more strange.

We had an extremely short Fall. One week it was 80 degrees and the next week it  was in the 40's and rainy and it's been cold ever since. I did enjoy this tree in our neighborhood on my drive home every day.

On my last day of walking with a t-shirt, the sun was out and I took this photo of another pretty tree in the neighborhood.

 

At the beginning of the summer, my husband and I talked about what we'd like to do for fun. We decided to do a few of the craft brew trails in ours and neighboring counties. Then life happened and it was November and we hadn't been to one brewery. He took half a day off and we visited two. I liked how these vines were growing up the building.

I liked the flight even more!