Well that's a new one on me, I forgot to put up my November blog post! So here I am in early December, still talking about November.
In early November, there were still a few fall colors to see. Some years, we don't even show our peak colors until then, but this year, we peaked earlier in October. But there are always some late splashes of color to enjoy. October was so glorious this year, by the time November arrived, even I had my fill. I know, it's truly shocking. I always swear that there is no limit to how much fall color that I can enjoy.
We had the standard first frost in mid October, and several more frosts since then. But none of them were hard freezes, so some of the flowers continued to bloom. Sure, all the tender annuals got zapped early on. But there were many stalwarts that just kept going. Some of these I expect to see in the cool weather. But some were totally confused by the strange weather this year, and decided to bloom totally out of season. Lilacs, primrose, hosta, zinnias, sunflowers, in November?
The local historical farm did a luminary walk recently, I presume to celebrate the upcoming holidays. But it was so incredibly dark that I found it a bit spooky! I enjoyed it, but couldn't even see the ground beneath my feet. Next time they should bill it as a Halloween event! My photos are deceptive, it was much darker than it appears.
Now that the days are short, I spend more time indoors, cooking, decorating, crafting etc.
At the end of the month, we still hadn't had a deep freeze, and I found a few stragglers in bloom. But they're gone now, we finally had temps in the 20's overnight, and even the hardiest flowers gave up. I still need to get out there and empty the last flower pots, but it's just too darned cold! I might have to lug the pots into the garage as is, full of dead plants and dirt. I've tried emptying frozen soil before, and it never works.
I only have a few sunsets this time, the skies are often gray now. It's a time to hunker down, be cozy and warm, and dream about next year. Thanks for coming by to see November in December! Next month I'll have Christmas decorations to show off. Sometimes I do them in late November, but I wasn't ready for it then. I realized that it was because Thanksgiving was so late! I can't get in the mood for Christmas if we haven't celebrated Thanksgiving yet. Till then!
