Wonderful garden! Good rock work too! I'm only an hour away and hope to see your garden some day in person. Cher, the leaves appear to have come from Arbutus menziesii. They normally shed during the summer, beginning in June. It's nature's way of dealing with our dry summers. AKA Madrona, a broadleaf evergreen tree with peeling, reddish bark. We have several weeks before we see the real Fall. Mike

Love that lighting. That pic just sets a mood. I'm ready to pour a hot cup of coffee and settle in wit a good paper.

The common willow with this appearance is 'Kilmarnock'. It is often traded as 'Pendula' but strictly speaking there is no cultivar with that name, the term instead being var. pendula, with there being two cultivated representatives - a now infrequent, female 'Weeping Sally' and a recently much sold, male 'Kilmarnock'. As with all weeping variants it is much preferred to have these placed where the branches can cascade, instead of being clipped (or browsed, in this case) to produce a silly perched or truncated effect.

Shrouded in fog: Volunteer trash tree--a box elder which reminds me of the apple-throwing trees in the Wizard of OZ: The base of the tall 'mushroom' in the middle is a box elder stump. You can see the roots which had spread in search of water. The tiny concrete mushroom in the lower right was a gift from my late sister: Grandson's portal to ... somewhere. Really an old wagon wheel missing its spokes, guarded by friendly gnomes. The box elder on the right and the wild cherry on the left came up between tumbled blocks so I left them for shade: I left a small mound of dirt and a piece of the old stump: The back side of the stump. I'd love to plant hostas here, but I know it would be an invitation to the deer--I'll have to settle for heuchera, Canadian ginger, and violets: The bird houses belonged to my late mother. When her house was sold, I brought them to my block garden, where they look as if they are climbing the tulip tree. Fire circle--under the firewood is the stump of a wild cherry tree. Twigs I picked up this spring, awaiting a trip to the burn pile on the other side of the creek: An old bird nest, with pebble eggs: A cow bone rodents have been gnawing for calcium: A row of stones which remind me of potatoes: Concrete mushroom top--bottom of a piece of concrete which was poured over large gravel and rocks: Photobombed by my cat, Gargoyle: Yes, I am Queen of this domain: More stumps with concrete mushroom tops: Some of the blocks were still held together by mortar and were really heavy. When I find an interesting rock or other object I add it to the pile: