I took this photo last Friday. Yes, the Virginia Creeper did finally turn it's beautiful red. This one rambles over a rustic gazebo that my husband built many years ago. The vine thrives and I make wreaths out of cuttings. As beautiful as this was, it only lasted a couple of days. Then the winds swooped in and yesterday, the leaves covered the ground. I still have hope for some of the trees to turn before more wind comes in and blows the tired leaves onto the ground.

I introduced you to my grandson, Patrick, last week, so I thought I would have you meet my granddaughter, Pheenix, this week. She's just out of high school and does some modeling - this was a shoot she did this summer - and she goes to Paul Mitchell school. I'm so happy to have someone in my family who can do my hair. I have a terrible time getting the cut I want, and she manages to do exactly what I want. Sometimes she turns me away from the mirror until she's done - yes,it is not easy to cut my hair. I've pretty much felt sorry for the hairdressers I go to. So - now it's up to Pheenix to keep me well-coiffed!

This is a view of the breakfast room buffet with one of my first roses last spring - a late rose at that. Because of our harsh 2010 winter, I thought I had lost all of my roses, but as the spring wore on, I saw life, and then roses! Couldn't resist cutting one of them and posing it by a dish I bought at an antique shop. I thought it made a nice arrangement with one of my collected pigs.

You are looking at my Corgis chasing the border collie that lives on the other side of the fence. They look forward to this particular walk, and I try to get them there at least once a week. Stella, the smaller, older one nearer the fence, and Frieda will lay in wait. If the fence dog doesn't arrive, they are disappointed but know they'll get another chance on our way back down the hill. We walk 6 days a week, and I'm lucky to get out of the neighborhood and into the desert where they get a chance to run off lead. Frieda really needs it as she's not yet two and has excess energy. She's the funny one, a clown, and Stella is very serious. She needs to occasionally run into Frieda to slow her down, show her who is boss.

As I said before, I didn't get much of a garden, but the pumpkin patch was adequate for Patrick, my grandson, who got first pick from Grammie's garden. He didn't quite know what to do, and I think the pokie leaves were scratching his legs, but he did settle on one, and his mama cut it loose from the ground for him. With that accomplished, my daughter and Colleen picked some, too. I've now cleaned out the pumpkin patch and have decorated with them around the front of the house.

It's a summer photo, but now we're into fall, my favorite time of the year. I'm ready to pull out the flowers. They should have given up at least 3 weeks ago - after all, this is northern Nevada, and now it's time for pumpkins. My trees should be golden, the Virginia Creeper should be red, and the horses should have a good layer of winter hair, but our weather continues to be strange. I did clean out some of my perennial beds on Saturday, but I always leave the Black Eyed Susans and some other plants for the birds to eat off of and hide in. We have lots of quail that winter over in the perennial gardens. And I do appreciate the extended growing season - I did get a pretty good crop of tomatoes, beautiful red hot peppers and about 24 pumpkins. Not bad for a very small vegetable garden.