Busy Friday.

 Morning stuff done a little later than usual.  Woo...more sleeping than usual.  Lovin it'.  Then of course it was outside stuff.  I guess I'm just an outdoor person.  

    Cosmos from Jared and Kimmy's garden. Such a pure white with no bug holes.  Beautiful! 

The path!  I started on the path and got rid of all the green stuff that was blocking the path.  There is still work to do with all the root removal, some above the ground and some not.  I chose to ignore that part of the job for today.  It's one of those standing-on-your-head jobs I just didn't want to do.  

        The sort of yellow-leafed plant is a volunteer Tulip tree planted by birds in the wrong place!                                          The deer like it so it's a bit frazzled.  I'm just letting it grow for now.

    I moved on to thinning out what needed to go which took care of more hostas and some woodland flowers that multiply faster than rabbits.  It was an all-morning job. 

A little after 11 I was off to have lunch with the Muldoon ladies.  When we were teaching we would meet after school at a restaurant downtown Carmel named Muldoons on Payday.   We taught first grade together more than 40 years ago at Forest Dale.  My goodness, there was lots to talk about and we left the restaurant at 1:45.  Such good friends who have shared good and bad times together for many years.  

Three years ago I bought two little pussy willow sticks from a catalog for the garden.  They now are about 8 ft. tall with a great crop of pussy willow buds and flowers waiting for next spring apparent in this picture. If lucky these twigs will not become deer food. 

Back home again after the party and it was straight to the garden again doing more thinning with the result that I have a safe place for zinnia seeds next spring.  No need for the lawn boy to spray in this area.  There is no grass but just perennials and spring seed beds. My choices of where to plant seeds this year were good but I just need more space. More hostas were dug and pitched.  The two blues are chuck full. Now it's soil amending time with leaves and compost.  

     Lots of room for a whole lot of seeds. I' want to move a few plants giving even more room to seeds. The trunks of the smoke tree are interesting forms in this picture.  We planted that bush about 47 years ago.  It still blooms wonderful maroon-colored smoky blooms each year.  

The weather has been beautiful and there is no reason to be inside when soon the temperatures will change.  I'm made to enjoy these warm sunny days.  The Pileated Woodpecker visits along with Nut Hatches, Tufted Titmouse, Flickers, Downey, and Red-Bellied Woodpeckers.  Most of the Sparrows have moved on along with Blackbirds of all kinds. The Humming Birds moved south some time ago. I

We're inching closer to snow time but I think Indian Summer will be around for a little longer.