I so enjoy everything you write. You say it so wonderfully!!
You have a way of saying how I feel but I can't seem to put it into
words as you do. Thanks!
Susie :-))


"madgardener" wrote in message ...
November up here on the ridge in Fairy Holler is reminiscent of another
year when I first moved over here to Eastern Tennessee.

In 1992 when we relocated here, the fall was damp and foggy and
temperate. My bulbs I'd planted in select spots at the rental farmhouse
came up in their entirety by this time.

This year, it's a wet one and milder again than you'd think. The leaves
on the trees are still hanging on. Colors have gotten richer and deeper
and more intense thru the mild days and cool nights and damp rains. My
black cherry tree still has it's leaves and they're a shade of
yellow/pink that I don't remember seeing on them before.

Everywhere the perennials are defying the fairies pleas of not wakening
or regenerating, and doing all sorts of things.

My oriental poppies have produced those wonderful hairy fern like
leaves. The Zebrina children have formed their deep green ruffled
spring leaves and are already two and a half foot tall. Kugle Sonne
Helianthus has dead tan stems with remnants of seed heads on them where
the finches haven't quite stripped them yet shoving thru the new growth
of next years leaves.

The last mum to bloom in my gardens that resides in it's oversized
nursery pot is cranking out more buds and the white petals are turning
an interesting shade of washed out pink-red. And September planted mums
are still putting out buds and flowers. Irises in the BBQ fountain
garden are sending up their green leaves and some are almost three foot
tall...............

My lilac buds on the older bush are beginning to bulk up, and I have a
hydrangea blossom on one of the young shrubs I tucked under the
variegated bush that is still cranking out textured and delightful white
and green leaves.

I don't see noses yet, but I know given time I'll see them poking thru
the loose rich soil I've laid down for them to live in. And my hellebore
are cranking out their new leaves earlier than they should.

Little rosettes of spring plants underneath this past season's spent
efforts has me wondering how the plants can be so fooled? Hopefully the
frosts will come and the foliage will be nipped back and they can truely
rest until true spring next year.
I just thought I'd share this unusual occurance.

madgardener up on the ridge, back in Fairy Holler where it's overcast,
very fall-like still, overlooking English Mountain in Eastern Tennessee,
zone 7, Sunset zone 36
--