Frosty plants and Mercer's first Autumn

We had a few frosty mornings recently since setting back our clocks on Halloween. Don't put your tongue on the Tpost!




My blueberry bushes are bright red, isn't that cool? I never knew they did that. I am so happy to finally have my own blueberry bushes. (I don't need to cover them in Winter, do I?)







The hydrangea looks fake with the white ice edges. In another month it won't look this good, why do so many of my plants have to lose their leaves? I am determined to only plant rhodies, azaleas, and box trees from now on, they stay green all year.






This is some sort of geranium perennial that the frost took over completely.




OK I admit, I put my tongue on this one. I had to taste the ice.




No more apples, *sigh*.





Here are the horses across the street. Chestnuts always look so warm in winter.




It's our cat's first Autumn outdoors in her 2.5 years. She is thrilled. She speeds by me at a gallop as I work raking leaves, she jumps into the birdfeeder trying to get lucky (and it worked once), and best of all, she thinks the falling leaves are cat toys from above, sent for her pleasure. She leaps into the air after them as if they're butterflies (she eats butterflies), and runs after them as they race across the grass as if they're mice. She crouches down into stealth mode, digs in and pounces on the unsuspecting leaves! She wears herself out and has to take a nap during the day. I've made her a bed in the greenhouse for this midday nap, then she's not far from her prey. I sure wish I had pictures of her going crazy out in the wind, but even if I had the camera with me, it's not a good enough camera to get moving cat shots. In this photo she held still to eat some grass.


The other night she decided to switch chairs. She was in my man's chair and there is no protective cat blanket on it. Here my man says, "My chair!"




He thought he'd sit down there too, to see if she'd leave, but she didn't, she just lay behind him as he worked on his laptop. He sure loves that cat. Even more than I do, I suspect, he's always had a soft spot for the timid one since she arrived.



She has been finding odd places to sleep lately. I was startled to see her curled up in our woodbox.



The other day she did something we've been waiting for a long time. My man sat in my chair and patted his lap and called her, and she sprang up into his lap, onto the cat blanket he'd placed there to make her more comfortable. She didn't stay long, but it was the first time she'd ever willingly gotten on a lap since we've had her. Yay, Mercer is coming around. Can't wait to see what she does in snow.

I couldn't leave Baasha out. Here he is on a frosty morning, looking much cleaner than how I normally find him. I sure hope we don't have a repeat of last Winter - 3 entire months of snow! That simply cannot happen again.

(Can it?)