Not much to look out anymore–this series may be ending until spring–but I’d like to get some of the fall color change first.

Also, if anyone wants a gerbera daisy to try and keep through the winter, I’ve got an extra. I also have two poinsettias that survived the summer. I don’t have the

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The sky was really quite lovely this evening.

Fall is most definitely here.

Plants are dying back, and now the stems and flower heads of my plants will feed birds for awhile.

Brown is starting to take over the garden, although I still have a few plants with fall and winter color.

For weeks and weeks the echinacia was covered in bees and butterflies. Now it be covered in small birds.

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It’s really sunny out today. Really really sunny.

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Well, not right now. Right now, in fact, the air conditioner is on and cranking out cold air to keep the temperature nice and cool.

However, we are now prepared for winter.

You may or may not remember that back in the spring I broke our wood stove.

As it was a monstrosity and not extremely efficient and had several other problems, we decided to purchase a new wood stove. Luckily, we ordered our stove back in June, since apparently it’s impossible to find a good woodstove around here now–everyone seems to be sold out because of the current high fuel prices.

So the stove was installed Friday!

First and foremost, I cannot believe how *small* the new stove is!

It can hold more wood, in what seems to be half the size of the old stove! It’s well sealed, so smoke won’t escape all the time! The parts are easily replaceable (the floor model at the store was actually missing parts, because she’d taken it apart to replace parts for her customers so they didn’t have to wait for new parts to come in) which is just an added bonus.

Plus it’s got lots of interesting features.

It can be filled from the front or the top. The lid for the top is also a griddle, so we can actually cook on the stove! (The old stove was jacketed, and so was relatively cool to the touch, comparatively.) It has a swing-out ash tray with a carrying lid…

It is, essentially, awesome, and I can hardly wait for it to get cold, so we can light a fire!

You can tell the summer is winding down and fall is almost here.

Here’s some sage from my herb garden. As long as I cover the garden with leaves in late fall, the plant should come back in the spring.

Sedum that came from S. Thanks again S!

Now the hydrangea is starting to turn brown. But it still has plenty of purple.

It’s that time of the week!

Nasturtium. They’re nice and spread quickly. And are edible, but I haven’t tried one.

Shrub Rose beside the drive way. It doesn’t have a strong smell, and the roses aren’t as beautiful as hybrid tea roses, but it’s hardly and survives benign neglect.

Yes, I really do like the orange sunflowers. Why do you ask?

Not much but sunflowers.

But the sunflowers do look really nice.

Wow. I hadn’t realized what a slow flower month August was.

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Not much new is happening in the garden. I’ve never managed to overwinter mums, so I don’t have too many fall flowers. Though chances are I’ll end up buying some mums (again) and planting them in any blank spots (which are getting harder and harder to come by.

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Not much new is blooming, but the Black Eyed Susans are absolutely gorgeous, and there are new sunflowers every time I look.

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And do we have lots of naughtiness today!

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Here’s the weeks flower pr0n. Apparently only yellow flowers are blooming right now.

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