Fall

Is everyone's favorite time of year Fall?  I guess if you live in Arkansas you can't help but love it after suffering through the hot and humid summers.

I've especially loved Fall so far this year.  We've had some cold days, some hot days, and some perfect days.  Today was definitely one of those perfect days!

I tried to get some things done in the yard that I normally put off until Spring.  If we're going to try to sell our house next year, we're going to have to work extra hard to make the yard look nice.  So I decided to take advantage of the weather and get a little head start!

Tiger, the stray cat that has been here for a couple years, showed up while I had my camera out this afternoon.

He still hasn't ever let me touch him.  He comes by randomly a few times a week and I feed him, talk sweet to him, and even try to lure him in the house from time to time but he's still scared of me.  I'm starting to think we'll never be pals.

Random shots

Brad had to work in Mountain Home last week and I went with him.  I got a lot of things accomplished while I was there but I had some free time too.  So I decided to play around with my camera and took some really random shots.

Self portrait

Granddaddy long-legs (is that what you guys call them?)

Giant tree

I love my macro lens.

Flowers

I have always been thankful that the original owners of our house must have had a green thumb!  We have a nice variety of flowers and shrubs that add color to the yard from early spring all the way through summer.

Every year Brad threatens to rip these up and burn the hole they come out of.  And every year I tell him that you can't kill a Crepe Myrtle so it would be a wasted effort.  I like certain varieties better than others but these are high maintenance.  We have one on each end of the house and all summer long I'm constantly cutting on them to try to make them look right.

I think Gladioli are another high maintenance flower.  Mine just fall over and lay on the ground.  I'm not sure if I have weak ones or what, but I am not going to the trouble of staking each one of them.  So I try to catch them at the right time and cut them to bring in the house!

Roses are not my favorites but we have two rose bushes that I actually like.  They bloom all summer long and don't take a lot of maintenance.  Probably about once a week I prune them and that seems to keep  them looking ok.  We have a light pink one and a coral colored one.  I like the coral one the best.  It's smaller and requires less overall pruning. The pink one will grow as tall as the house if I let it.

I love our Hydrangea bush!  Unfortunately, it is in full sun and is almost impossible to keep from burning this time of year.  It would be so pretty if it were in a more shady area of the yard.  In the spring I like to cut these and bring them inside.

I think my favorite plant in the yard is our giant Elephant Ear.  I love this thing!!  It doesn't like the heat and must be watered at least once a day or the poor thing will just hang over on the ground.  I've never been able to get a good picture of it and these two aren't any better.  It's so big, it's hard to get a good shot of it.   

I like the Crepe Myrtle behind it better than I do the pink ones.  I don't have to work on it all the time and it looks more like a tree rather than a giant shrub.

My Lilac Bush

I spent most of the weekend on the couch but yesterday I walked outside for a minute and saw that my lilac bush had bloomed!!   This is my favorite thing in our yard but it's located on the side of our house and can't be seen from the driveway or from any windows in the house.  I wish it was in a different place but I am glad to at least have it.   

It rained yesterday morning and the raindrops were still on it when I went out in the afternoon.

It was actually a good weekend to be sick and stuck in the house. It was cold, cloudy, and rainy all weekend!  

Macro Lens

I love, love, LOVE my macro lens!  Since I got it, I haven't really used my big lens at all.
I was playing around with it a couple of days ago and found a tiny little gnat on a flower.

Can you see him on the bottom petal of the middle flower?  This is the Flowering Quince in my back yard.  To give you an idea of how tiny he was, each bloom is about the size of a quarter.

I got closer and tried to focus in on him.

I didn't get a lot of detail but it was the best I could get since I hand-held my camera.  I think it would have been better if I had put it on a tripod.  Or if I had a zoom macro lens.  And I'll have to win the lottery before I get one of those!  Mine is a Sigma 50mm F2.8.  It works well for my limited abilities!!