Winding down to Fall

I am not quite sure where this summer has gone, I had many grandiose plans for all the things I wanted to see, do and get finished, but sadly most did not come to fruition. The tomatoes are ripening fast and I think I will have to book a day off work next week and spend it canning my salsa. I like it with some heat and always get compliments so that will definitely need to get done. Despite a few days of rain the garden is still going along, some things have been pulled out and I find myself looking forward to winter where all I need to do with it is look out the window of the studio and peruse it instead of constantly watering, weeding and fussing. Here is one of my African Daisies still going strong....

The Chinese Lantern plant pods are at their brightest orange now, I will be picking and drying them, they look wonderful piled in a bowl for some autumn color in the house.

The cats absolutely adore the garden and spend most of their time outside. We have a cat fence attached to our 6' cedar fence and they cannot get out of the yard. What is a cat fence you ask? It is a system of metal elbows attached to the existing fence with black mesh strung between, the elbows bend inward (like Alcatraz for kitties!) so they cannot climb over it. Here is a picture, if you look closely between the metal elbows you can see the mesh. It keeps the cats in the yard and I have peace of mind knowing they will not wander off, get hit by a car or attacked by dogs, etc.

August and September were full of fun events, I went to the Fair in Lynden, the first time I had actually made it out there. Never would I have imagined there were so many different kinds of chickens and rabbits, the 4-H barns were great fun. Had my mandatory Elephant Ear, chock full of greasy, cinnamon-y, sugary goodness. Here are a few of my favorite critters from the Fair.

September was my brother-in-laws wedding in Victoria, BC, the ultimate tourist trap. We stopped by the world famous Butchart gardens, took a zillion pictures, especially of the Dahlia's and roses. I have this new Canon camera that takes pretty good pictures, including good macro and I have been going a little crazy with it. There are tons of features on it, including stuff a pro would use but I figure I will need to take a class at the community college to learn all the bells and whistles as I am pretty much "technology challenged".