I’m travelling for the next few weeks, so I figured it makes sense to make sure the potted plants are safe.  I finished that today, potted some hyacinth bulbs for forcing and then wandered quickly around the garden and too the following pictures:

I’ve been partial to these trees since they started from the seeds borrowed from the arboretum.  While at the cabin, I perused the leaf book Leon bought me a few years ago

and I found the name-the are Idesia polycarpa!  And they are putting on quite a show.

Striking yellow leaves with the red petioles still bright.

One of the blueberry starts colored up nicely–it has grown well this year.

 Prime Ark blackberry is trying really hard to ripen these berries before frost.

Aronia leaves.

Witchhazel flowers.  These don’t have a sweet smell–more like a clean, astringent one.

Alpine strawberries loving the cooler weather.

The black raspberry threw some major wandering canes.  I put a pot in the garden to catch this one so I can have a start next spring.

Raspberry leaves coloring up in the cooler weather.

This crow came to cheer me on as I took pictures around the yard.  Actually, it was looking for a handout, but Leon fed them yesterday, so I wasn’t inclined to oblige.

Another view of the witch hazel flowers.

The Iochroma in the driveway bed grew eight feet tall this year, but it still didn’t bloom!

Lamium looks its absolute best this time of year.

Dahlias are blooming a sigh of relief for the cooler, wetter weather.

Another late bloomer.

Campanula poscharskyana throwing a few blooms of its own half a year past its usual bloom time.

Huge white mushroom in the bark growing next to the veggie raised beds.  My foot is included (size 10.5 ) for size perspective.

I put the bulbs for forcing in the cold frame.  I’ll leave them uncovered to get some rain, then cover them with leaves and put the lid on for a few months before pulling them into the greenhouse for forcing.

Another HUGE mushroom–this one in the raised veggie bed where I planted lettuce seeds that have resulted in no lettuce plants that I can see.

The kale plants are finally snapping out of their year-long doldrums.  I had pruned these virtual shrubs back early in the year and they pouted since then.

Curly kale, looking fresh.

Here is the head of the Kalette plant–it is lovely and has some great looking leaves, but the brussel-spout like kalettes haven’t formed yet.

A close up of the leaves with their purple veins.

This dahlia is actually more orange than pink (at least to my color-blind eyes).  They are putting up some great flowers late in October!

Again, the colors are off–the larger blooms are orange, and the smaller ones are a lighter orangey salmon.

This euphorbia from Brother Tim is happy as a clam in the greenhouse and blooming up a storm–a snow storm!

Deeply colored flowering maple–so gorgeous!  These shrubs are enjoying a resurgence in the cooler weather, as are the streptocarpus behind them.

More flowering maples.

When I went out to move the cymbidiums and clivias into the greenhouse, I was greeted with at least four spiking orchids!  This one is almost ready to burst–the others are just starting.

A little blurry–but another cymbidium spike!

And another really fat one!

And yet one more.

Here is the greenhouse–stuffed to the gills with all the winter tenants.

Another plant enjoying the cool, wet weather–impatiens in a pot on the back patio.

This is a great color, too, and the leaves look fantastic this time of year–nice and dark.

The wonder berries are blooming still.  There are lots of berries and lots of flowers.  I grabbed some berries today for Brother Tim to have some seeds.

The Hakone grass is looking like a fountain of color right now.  I need to divide it in late winter, as it is incredibly pot bound and it dries out far too often in the warm months.  But it is hanging in there an still making a show.

We drove up to our little cabin in Tonasket last Thursday and came back today.  We didn’t time it on purpose to avoid the storms that were being predicted all weekend, but it worked out well!

Below are some pictures of what we saw/experienced on our long weekend.

The larches were in their glory near the cabin–I couldn’t resist taking pictures that I’ve probably taken a thousand times before!

You can see here how larch needles cover the ground everywhere near the trees.

My best hiking buddy, Bodhi.  He’s ten now, so not quite as active, but he keeps me company on three mile hikes!

Not a fun picture, but a strange one.  This is the second toad I’ve found apparently run over on the same stretch of dirt road in several years.  That wouldn’t be strange, except that the “traffic” on this road is maybe 2-3 cars a day!  The odds are in the toads’ favor, and yet two of them have failed to cross the road!

More larches…

And more…

And more…

The shrubs in the meadow add a wonderful contrast to the grass and the trees.  There is a subtlety, that, contrasted with autumn’s boldness, comes across as bold, as well.

I’m not positive what this plant is, but I’ve been lured in by its gorgeous leaves before.  It may be an alien–it appears on driveways and other disturbed places.

Very few plants were still blooming as autumn was throwing down cold nights, but I saw dozens of blue bells all over the mountains.

More larches, firs and pines…

 

Bodhi traipsing through the tall grass.

An old crag standing out against a moment of blue sky.

A spectacular larch in the meadow.

Aspens as a backdrop for a smaller, brighter larch tree.

This was the most amazing thing we saw all weekend–ten turkeys scurrying across the meadow one morning.  We hadn’t seen turkeys near the cabin  in seven years!

Before the turkeys realized we were talking about them, they were in a more relaxed formation.

Leon and two Lhasa Apsos at nap time.  We sleep SO MUCH there and it never seems to be enough!

Amongst all the Douglas firs, larches and Ponderosa pines, there are a few odd trees out.  This is one of them.  There is a short line of these and their seedlings popping up around in one very specific area near our cabin.  I think this is a spruce of some kind, but need to investigate further.

Close-up of the needles to help me identify later.  There are also noble firs around the area that I’ve seen.  I assume these trees have been brought in by residents over the years.

Mona is NOT a good hiking partner.  She won’t go past the driveway anymore!  But she looks awfully cute!  And she loves being up in the country.

A close-up.

A larch amid darker trees.

I saw this gorgeous bug on the door frame of a neighboring cabin.  Bugs were a big part of this cabin trip–our cabin was full of flies and wasps that came out as soon as the temperatures got above about sixty degrees.  I caught at least a hundred and fifty flies and passed them outside.  I hope they found somewhere else to winter over.

Chipmunks were not hibernating yet.  I got a picture of this little guy’s tail, mostly.

Bodhi pointing out a particularly showy larch tree.

 

We call Bodhi our billy goat–and you can see why here–he loves scrambling up rocks (or furniture) and loves to be on top.

It is tough for a shrub to stand out when all around them are brilliant yellow larch trees.  This stand of wild roses held up well to the competition.

These are a fantastic combination of yellow, green, red and orange–and the red stems really set it all off.

Another view…

Another….

This trip was about cows, too.  There is some drama about the cows being welcomed by some property owners and not others.  The ranchers rely on the free range land.   However, the cows can cause damage and “yuck” pretty much everywhere.  Leon and I like the cows, but we can sure understand the problem.

Another stand-out larch brightening its dark area of the forest.

 

I ordered the following on Ebay and the seller did an amazing job of packing the very healthy starts that were sent.

You can find their Ebay store here.  The photos below are from their site–I highly recommend them based on their prices and the beautiful, healthy plants hey sent.

Hosta “Fragrant Blue”

Heuchera “Dolce Silver Gumdrop”–this picture doesn’t lie!  The leaves of this gorgeous cultivar look exactly like this.

Here is Astilbe “Color Flash Lime”.  This one was showing the bright lime foliage, but not yellow as  it appears in the photo.  We’ll see what the semi-sun exposure in the Doug fir bed will do to its color.

This gorgeous hosta is “Stained Glass.”

Here you can see starts I received.  The packaging was amazing–each plant had craft paper wrapped around the pot and leaves and folded over and taped.  In addition, the soil was secured in the pots with plastic bags tied tightly around each plant stem.  This packaging was brilliant and effective!

All of these plants went out into the Doug fir bed this morning.  I have had success with one hosta out there, so I am hoping to build on that and add a few more and plants that like similar situations.

The biggest concern is the dryness of that raised bed.  The tree sucks all the moisture out of the soil and out of the air.  The ground was extremely dry when I planted the starts today.  I set the sprinkler to water them in well for an hour.  I’ll have to really watch it next summer, though, and water that whole area regularly until the starts are established.  Hopefully, I’ll have a drip system in there and that will make it easier.