September and October

These are 2 months that we enjoy for several reasons. It's sort of our 2nd season for some of the flowers and vegetables, 2 of the Grandsons are into playing football, and now, there's Celeste's birthday on Oct. 1. Oh, and there's the State Fair, that we got back to for the first time in 3 years.
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Here's some flowers that managed to survive the drought and heat of the past summer.





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This Oleander, that we have potted up, opened it's first bloom on May 23rd, and was still blooming through the fall. We'll have to get a picture of the shrub in full bloom next year.


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We didn't have as many butterflies this year during the summer, but they showed up again in the fall, and we saw this one that had just started spreading it's wings.


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Lynne got me a new bird feeder station for the back yard for my birthday, and it didn't take long for the birds to know there was a new restaurant in town!

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Of course, for us and Mom, Celeste's birthday party is always special. We don't get to see her or Kevin or Jenn nearly as much as we'd like to, so when her birthday rolls around, we're ready to make the trip up to North Raleigh for the afternoon. Here's some pictures from this year's party.











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October brought a couple flower surprizes to the yard. This morning glory, planted in the spring, decided to wait until the fall to sprout and bloom.

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This firecracker vine, that should have been blooming late in the summer, also waited until October to set it's blooms. It was worth the wait!


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We've posted pictures of the swallowtail and monarch butterflies we get, but this little guy visited us one afternoon. That's a Pansy flower he's on, to give you an idea how small he was.

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Like we mentioned earlier, John and Brad played football in the fall, and we got out to watch them play on their 'Homecoming day'. The one with the red arrow is pointing at John, and he's also somewhere in the next picture. Brad is in the 3rd picture somewhere as well. The uniforms pretty much swallow the kids, so it's hard to pick them out in a crowd :)



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Back in the springtime, when we had the trees taken out, I had started some extra pepper plants in case the ones growing got damaged. Well, those plants survived the tree removal, and I ended up planting the 'extras' around June 1st. They actually did better than the ones planted in the spring, and after seeing some of the exhibits at the State Fair, I might be tempted to enter some of my own produce next year. These sweet banana peppers were 8-10" long, and we had many an enjoyable meal using them as a casing for various stuffings. The other peppers in the tray are some hot Cayenne peppers that Ruth's husband loves, but doesn't have time to grow.

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As usual, the cats have the last word. Nothing exciting this time, just the cats being cats.





'Til next time ~ Peace from Heartland Gardens.