Have a seat while I show you what's happening in my gardens right now.
The view from the kitchen changes by the day. There aren't many leaves left on the maple tree.
Teddy will join us.
This is where the leaves are now.
Time for mulching.
The beauty berries are........beauties!
Suddenly lots of these mushrooms appeared.
They almost grow before your eyes.
The hosta leaves are all changing color.
The pumpkins and mums are covered with leaves.
The mums are changing color too.
The fennel is still growing.
Next summer I am going to spend a lot of time looking at these pics and dreaming of fall.
Looking up into one of the maples.
It's also time to get the leaf press out.
The Japanese Maples put on quite a show.
Some turn yellow while others turn red.
The ponds have been shut down for the year.
The giant Weeping Beech is turning golden.
Some hostas have already died back.
These trees are my favorite. Bald Cyprus. 
The leaves on the Chestnut Hydrangeas are turning burgundy.
Another Japanese Maple.
The stream is dry and covered with leaves.
The ponds are full of leaves.
Clean up time in the gardens.
A very strange melting mushroom.
Many of the trees are almost bare.
A view up the path.
A pomegranate on a bale of hay.
A closeup of a Japanese Maple leaf.
This looks like an accident waiting to happen.
*****And finally.....the winner of the Halloween giveaway is.....Jules@MooncatFarms. Congrats!!!! It is wrapped and ready to go! Send your info to me!!!
*****Also, don't forget...on Halloween I will be giving another basket away on Mrs. B's. Just click the button on the sidebar to enter.
RECIPES: For those that asked:
Vanilla Recipe: Scrape 6 vanilla beans and add the seeds and the scraped beans to one bottle of bourbon. Shake the bottle occasionally and it should be ready to use in about 2 months.
Aussie Sausage Rolls: roll out sheets of puff pastry and cut them into sections apporox. 4x6. Spread a bit of dijon mustard on them and sprinkle with dry sage stuffing mix. Roll out a log of sage flavored breakfast sausage and place it down the middle. Roll the puff pastry around the sausage pressing to seal it. Brush with raw egg and bake at 400 degrees for approx. 25 minutes until golden brown.
Candy Apples:
6 apples
6 twigs
2 c. granulated sugar
1 c. lt. corn syrup
1/2 c. cinnamon candies
1/2 c. hot water
Push twigs into the apples. Add sugar, water and corn syrup in a heavy pot on the stove top. Heat to 250 on a candy thermometer. Add the cinnamon candies and stir. Keep cooking until the temp. reaches 285. Swirl the apples to coat and stand them on a cookie sheet that has been oiled.
Comments
Great Pics!
Your gardens are gorgeous : the smells and sounds of the leafs under foot must be quite a feeling. Thanks a lot, dear one, for sharing.
That mushroom looks very much like some we have over here. We call them Ink mushrooms, because they sort of melts away dripping with black "ink". Those we have tastes rather good if taken before dripping stage.
A funny thing with them is that You can´t eat them and at the same day drink any alcohol. If doing so one becomes really sick :-) :-) Otherwise they are absoulutly harmless :-)
Have a great day now!
Christer.
Congrats to the winner.Bummer, though.
Bourbon?! I would have thought vodka
Blessings,
Soraya
I'm so jealous of your fall garden. We just don't get the gorgeous colors out here in the West. Also, thanks for the vanilla recipe - I was just telling my mom that you mentioned making your own - Yum..
Thanks again for my lovely prize, and for this gorgeous eye candy of a blog!
And Jaz, thanks SO much for the recipes!! I can't wait to try them all!!
And more photos of your absolutely stunning yard! It leaves me breathless!!
Those first mushrooms look like Shaggy Manes, but I could be wrong, so that is no guarantee. lol The one that is melting sort of looks like ones they call Black Ink, but most of the ones that I've seen don't "melt" quite like that, but I suppose that isn't written in stone, either.
I have one of those Beautyberry Bushes, and my daughter saw the color of those berries, and wanted one too, for her new home. I went back to the nursery the other day, and they had one left, for 40% off! All of the leaves had blown off in the high winds we have had, but the berries were still there. She came and picked it up yesterday, SO happy to have one of her own!
And we bought a Fern Leaf, Full Moon Maple that is so gorgeous. Now that I see all of yours, I want more! lol
Thanks SO much for sharing your beautiful yard with us1 You're right. In the heat of next Summer, I'm going to join you in looking at these photos again. It will brighten my spirits and give me something to look forward to!
Congrats to Jules!!!!!
Congratulations to Jules!