I keep watching shingles fly off my roof into the back yard with each passing storm. It's time for a new roof, but funds are a little tight right at the moment, with just having to replace the AC this spring. I'm going up tomrorow morning, with some new shingles, roofing cement, puddy knife, hammer, and roofing nails to see if I can repair the damage. Fortunately it is not leaking at all, in the attic or the house. It has two roofs on it right now. I can only assume that is why. So I feel your pain. You can think of me sweating bullets everytime the winds pick up too....hehehehe... Easy

That's the problem I have here... no decent trees with limbs low enough to hang plants from in summer. I only have one... the French Pink Pussywillow shrub, which is actually more of a tree now. I've been pruning it to stay at a manageable size, and it now has some lower limbs that might be good for hanging a few plants on this coming summer. It's situated on the east side of a building, so it's sheltered nicely. I thought I'd summer over my orchids in its branches, and also some of my cacti type plants. My bulbs will either be staying indoors, or they'll come out if I can locate a fine mesh cloth to cover them with. I am not willing to share them with Narcissus Bulb Flies! By spring, I should have my indoor light situation fixed to my satisfaction. I'd love to take every plant I have outside for the nicer weather, but I just don't want to end up posting a horror story about destroyed bulbs! There have been too many posted already, and if nothing else, I've learned a thing or two about insect damage! Tomato cages are definitely within my budget, but I'm wondering if it would be worth it to purchase one of those gorgeous black wrought iron towers... the flowers of this night bloomer certainly deserve a special home! I look forward to seeing photos of your tree, complete with your Epiphyllum collection!

Thanks for the nice comments, everyone, lots of my friends and friends-to-be (I hope) showed up here. It made me sad to pick those last flowers. I named my photo Late Fall Flowers from a Chekhov short story that had a very sad ending, but the title grabbed me. Thanks for the reassurance that that echinacea will come back. There are several more volunteers out there. The yellow bloomed well enough but bugs chewed the petals this year so they were a wash this summer. For yellow, Bluestone has a prettier version with what looks like wider petals. Harvest Moon is skinny, and I didn't like it, but it makes for some variation and looks well with C. Rooguchi nearby. A few words about Charlotte. It's an Austin rose, it's one of a pair I have way in front with lots of sun, grafted if you know how it works with roses, got it from Pickering in Canada. I've had very poor luck with most of the others. Charlotte blooms nearly nonstop from as soon as they start in early June until past the first frost, beautiful cup shaped blooms, first flush loaded with clusters is the best. Roses just take more fussing than I have patience for so I'm getting rid of them except for Char and a couple others. The Jap beetles ruin it all for me, had to keep Char disbudded during that whole time, a darn shame, and they stayed late this year, and I still had to pick them off the leaves. But when they swarm in those blooms, it makes me sick to my stomach to see it so cut all the buds off to spare myself any more of that. Some they don't bother much at all. The only downside of Char is the blooms fade in a couple days then shatter quickly. This year with all the rain, it got some kind of blight on the leaves, otherwise has been clean with no spraying. One more word about roses, I prefer own root from now on, but the grafting gives them a kick start, and it takes the own root a couple more years to catch up if they're going to. The ones that are hardy here die back to the ground, but Char makes a fast comeback in the spring once pruned, tidied up and fed. Perennials (and some scattered annuals) require far less fussing and are more satisfying overall, maybe a little Bloom Booster now and then and water when too dry. Nasturtiums are the only ones I won't grow because of aphids. We had a late September frost but most roses can tolerate the mild ones and just the most tender plants were taken by that. The ones that hug the ground are still warmed from that, and some are a little tougher. It's very weird for here to have anything blooming by yesterday, Dec 3, and I did nothing special except cover all my new delph plants with soda bottles, caps off. The other perennials some just seem to settle in and die back for winter without a frost. And the alyssum are prettier as ever this am, was supposed to get down to 27 last nite. It's kind of cheery as I need to go get some oil for the gas mix for the snowblower and be ready. Ugh. Not looking forward to it. Sorry I rambled. Again.

Sigh, maybe 1/64th of an inch in a passing "spit" not a shower, not a sprinkle. I'm envious, so very envious. I bought a rain barrel today. Our first. We already irrigate with reclaimed water, but this will help supplementing when I water the patio potted plants. I think I'll buy another if there's enough room to hook the two together. Although if it keeps like this, it will just be a big, brown, plastic barrel good for nothing better than giving the lizards a place to fight for territory over.