Fall is coming

Autumn knocking at the lake. I strolled at Onondaga Lake Park, searching for those first turning trees here in Central New York. There you are. Found them. The calendar will catch up soon.

This is wine country

OK to go to the restaurant. My dear wife Karen and wonderful friend Georgia were speculating where, exactly, would be a good place to meet Chris for lunch before she took off to her winter spot in Florida. Beautiful setting. Owera Vineyards is back open and putting out food in Cazenovia, I offered. Variety! Yes,…

Enjoying Polish Night at the stadium

Happy us. As the baseball season for our hometown Syracuse Mets winds down, we know we’ve still got a small pile of purchased vouchers to use before the final game. We picked Polish Night last week. We got there early enough to score our free jerseys out of the 1,000 handed out by the Triple-A…

By any other name …

Levels of lovely. I can admire so much about how much our backyard means to my dear wife Karen. The beauty of that single pick rose as we prepare for the arrival of autumn shows off the success of her spade work and consistency with water from the garden hose since she started looking over…

On the wings of a first season

What a debut! Our backyard butterfly bush has certainly turned out to be a success in its first year in the ground after we brought it home from favorite local nursery Ballantyne Gardens. Each step of its process makes my more and more thrilled.

Can’t miss the knockout

Hard-hitting color. Our front corner knockout roses make a statement as we move into college football season. They always wear the red of my alma mater Maryland Terrapins, I will add.

Taking its turn

Lovely time. My dear wife Karen does so well choosing garden plants that take turns with their blooming cycles in our gardens, front and back. The cedum turns out its flower-tops at the end of summer. As I admire the plant out front, I also think it almost looks like it could look good in…

Feeling blue

Good greeting from outdoors. I like to look to the left before I step outside during this stretch of almost-autumn. That burst of blue blooms on the tall plants makes me happy. Bright spot. Still looks good mixed with the white blooms on the outside, too.

Sand coverage

An attempt. A trip to Lowe’s included a perusal of the Outdoor Gardening aisle for my dear wife Karen and I to figure out a good way to cover the pesky corner outside our front alcove that attracts weeds and such. Instead of medium, small or smallest rocks, we went with sand. Looks good, we…