BOB AND HIS BOBCAT

 This is our driveway...about 120' of rutted gravel and weeds on the side. For six long years we've had to mow it (it goes uphill to the street). Not a fun job! So when a Bobcat showed up across the driveway at the derelict house... (the owner of the house is having all the broken concrete removed and a whole new driveway pad, walkway and back patio poured so he can sell the house)...we jumped at the chance to employ Bob and his Bobcat to fix our mess.   

 First we had to have gravel delivered quickly. I called and they were here within an hour with 10 yards of 3/4 minus! The driver was able to dump/spread it up the driveway within about 3' of the fence.

 Then Bob went to work. Talk about "poetry in motion" as Howard Cosell used to say...

 Within 15 minutes he had it moved over to the fence and smoothed out. He even graded the driveway!

So here it is all done. NO MORE MOWING! LOVING IT! We gave Bob $75 for his work.   

NOVEMBER SURPRISES

 Whilst out in the very dampish garden, intent on tying up rogue ivy and clematis, I spied some welcome surprises...a white clematis bloom, some miniature pink roses ignoring the cold and some big double delight tea roses slightly water logged but still willing to keep their blooms upright and fragrant. I just added some Westerlund rose hips  to fill out the bouquet. Heavy rain predicted this afternoon so I'm glad I found these to bring in and enjoy indoors. 

MINNESOTA REUNION

In late October I met up with my younger brothers and my cousin Jackie to bury my mom's ashes in the Union cemetery in Mound, Minnesota, on the banks of Lake Minnetonka. My youngest brother Dean (with the beard) arranged the whole thing and I'm most thankful to him for doing it. And the unexpected plus was reuniting with my cousin after 60 years! And I managed to put my best foot forward and get along with my other brother Steve for two days. This was no simple task as he and his kids were able to live well on my mother's money for several years. At least now the "gravy train" for him is over and the remaining funds were split up evenly among the three of us (even though he got more than his share ahead of time!) Ain't families great!!! That's as nice as I can be about the situation.

A FALLISH DISPLAY

 I got a new fall oak leaf swag from Crate & Barrel this year, combined it with my ceramic pumpkins,  ivy and miniature lights for a pleasing fall look. We've had a particularly colourful fall this year for some reason and so are enjoying it even if we've had to bag up thousands of leaves from our maple trees.  

NOT BIRD BRAINED!

 I've been using a concrete birdbath for a couple of years and discovered that it has developed a leak. It was always hard to manage as I had to take the heavy top off to empty it and the porous concrete was very good at letting algae grow.  I had to frequently douse it with bleach. So the Wild Birds Unlimited store had a 3-hour 15% off sale for it's preferred customers...I've bought a lot of bird seed over the years so I am one of those customers. This new bird bath is cast iron base and a powder coated bowl.

We've kitted it out with a heater (the light grey rectangle), a water spout/mister which makes it easy to fill without dragging over the hose, and the battery operated "tiddler" that agitates the water and attracts the birds. No kidding, they like the water to be moving! Yeah, lucky birds!!!

LEAF ME BE!

I took this photo out our patio door about 30 minutes after I had cleaned up all the leaves on the patio. I was convinced that the "worst was over." Not so much! Seems I forgot to look up...on the roof. The wind came up as predicted by the weather guessers and all the leaves came cascading down from the roof and gutter.
We started our annual leaf-o-rama early this year...in early October as our maples were already dropping lots of beautiful red leaves. We filled up nine big black 40 gallon leaf bags and hauled them up to the road for collection by mid October. Surely, we thought, the worst is over now!
Expectations unmet as we were knee deep in maple by Halloween and loading up more bags. 
It's raining today so I'm glad we got most of the leaves collected before they got wet and slimy.
Seems like I've spent the entire month raking, blowing, raking, blowing, bagging, hauling........
Time for a glass of wine and a nap!💤🍁