Christmas Walk

Saturday and Sunday was the Holiday Walk. I was assigned to the main Cabin, which was decorated following Gene's description of her 1917 Christmas. Gene decorated with fresh roses and lilies, and she draped Spanish moss from her chandeliers. The result was festive even if we do not think of these materials as traditional. Gene had a cedar tree on the conservatory porch decorated for the birds and so did we.

The Cabin rang with music both days, thanks to Nancy Blough and friends. Mountain dulcimers, harps, bass, auto harp, piano, percussion instruments were played by talented musicians, but Nancy enjoys involving the guests so there was also dancing, singing and keeping time with spoons.

And another Nancy spent both days baking zucchini bread in the kitchen and the smell drew guests right into the kitchen.

I was asked to decorate the garden shed. First, though, I had to pack up the tender bulbs for winter, bag up the seeds collected and sweep out a ton of dirt. Lisa and Carol helped me do that on Thursday. Then on Friday my sister came up and we decorated the Garden Shed tree and mausoleum. Here is the tree decorated with flowers from the garden and bird's nests from the site. (It wasn't possible to stage a good shot because this is a working garden shed and our "stuff" cluttered the background.)
The garden shed was used to make Christmas crafts. This year, Cheri (on the left with one of her helpers on the right) laid out nature items and boy were the guests creative!

Last Blooms of Summer, Part 2

Blogger wouldn't let me post all the pictures at once, so here are some more pictures from November 1, just before our first hard freeze. The first picture is the south end of the arbor where the impatiens have nestled into the rocks.
The bed of nasturtiums always do well in the long bed in the east garden. In the foreground are "cherry rose" nasturtiums and the rest are a jewel mix, one of which is shown in a close-up shot. This is one of my favorite fall beds in the garden.

The last blooms of summer

It is November 1 and the first hard frost will hit that evening, but the day is sunny and beautiful and the garden is still pushing out its blooms. The ageratum, volunteers from last year's planting, hasn't went to seed yet and is a brilliant blue.Of course, mums are the staple of the fall garden and the mum bed, on the west side of the arbor is still going strong, even though it's past its prime. This bed has hyacinths in the spring and iris in the summer.
The dahlias are still blooming and is the only tender bulb I haven't brought in for the winter. I just couldn't disappoint this late season bee.

The garden phlox started blooming in August and there are still quite a few blooming. The scent is wonderful.
The honeysuckle my son transplanted in the middle of summer last year just won't stop blooming. And we were worried that it would be too stressed to survive.