Scenes from an Autumn Garden

 Dateline: Cattaraugus County, western New York state

Hello again after a long time, due to extremely erratic internet (Vodafone mobile wifi (sic) is not to be recommended) in London and France. But we're back briefly in Cattaraugus County now and to a very different garden, full of the easy-going Autumn disarray, which I love.   

Our one bright red maple didn't have that many leaves left, but enough to get the picture, as it were.

The sun is shining but it's chilly, which isn't a bad thing; it won't be such a wrench to go south, even if we'll be spending quite a while clearing up debris from Hurricane Ian. Thank God a friend sent photos and the little Golden Beach house is still standing - the garden fence is another matter. But we'll tackle that when we get there.  Meanwhile we've got a couple more days to enjoy the beautiful autumn here.

Who needs New England?

The stall up the lane is done for the year, the Farmers' Market down to its last few shivering diehards but the new buddleia appears to be thriving.

And some geraniums still bloom among the fallen leaves.

The chipmunk acorn relay has clearly been and gone, the miniature stripy teams shinning up and down, up and down the big oak tree,  some breaking off twigs, others gathering the spoils below.  The lawn grass is littered with debris and discarded acorn hats. This was a bumper year for acorns so Chippy and co will be happy.  

Less welcome guests clearly made themselves at home while we were away.

I snapped the photo quickly through the mosquito netting before chasing the blighters off. Don't worry, they'll be back. It's a losing battle. But at least we can try to save the rhododendrons again with some judiciously-placed netting. That's a task for tomorrow, after hubby's put the boat away.