Frost on the Pumpkin

I'm enjoying a cup of cinnamon coffee (ran out of pumpkin spice) while I look out at the first frost of the season. I am going to have to do some research, but it's the latest first frost in my memory, at least since I have had any kind of a garden. Feels like a full month late to me.

I still have gorgeous roses, geranium, and marigold outside, and I didn't cover them. I thought about the geranium, because I've never grown one so beautiful, but honestly, it's time to move on to the next season. It's almost snow time in these parts, and while I think we're in for a mild winter, there's a little voice in my head that says it's past time to get the yard cleaned up and ready for a foot of snow. 

We had some rain and wind earlier in the week that took down the majority of the  leaves in our yard, but the drive to work is still unbelievably gorgeous. When I come off Cty Hwy B and drive past Pattison Park, the view of the water and the trees is breathtaking, then around the bend and I'm at the top of the hill, and can see everything, all the way to Duluth. It is an explosion of color, that boggles the mind! I took a different route to town yesterday, and the view coming down the hill on Cty A was something to behold. It's a little more open than the narrow view on CtyB so it was an explosion of color as far as the eye could see, in all directions. If I hadn't been on a time crunch I would have pulled over and just breathed it in for a few minutes. 

I asked for a fire bowl for my birthday, more for use in the winter time, because we can't always access the bigger bonfire area down in the valley by the creek. We'll set it up for the winter on the south side of the house, where the views aren't as spectacular, but it's protected from the North East winds we get around here. Right now through, it's perfect in the west facing back yard, I'm loving watching the fall sunsets with a little fire!  In the summer we can not really see the sun set here. Too many thick, lush, greens in the way. 

In the summer I also can't see what Loki is up to when he runs off after a squirrel, or a scent that he's picked up, and the teacher of Littles within me can't have that! Now I'm able to see him, and hear where he is in the crunchy leaves!  

There's a crisp to the air now, that we've been lacking, and I have been missing. Fall has finally arrived!