10/18/2024 – Around Colehaus

All things blooming here at Colehaus have saved their best for last. Nighttime temperatures are starting to dip and we’ve gotten a little rain here and there over the past two weeks. By this time next month, most everything will be done flowering and perennials will have started their winter sleep. It’s time to celebrate and thank our flowers for giving us one last spectacular show.

Neither of us ever grew sunflowers before, not including the occasional sprout from birdseed which never grew to flowering stage. A couple of years ago, Mom bought some pretty sunflower seed packets and promptly forgot about them until this past spring. Frankly, we’re surprised they grew at all or that some squirrel or raccoon didn’t dig up the seeds for snacks. Absolutely beautiful, they all grew between 6 and 11 feet tall and we’ll definitely grow them again next year.

One thing we’ve discovered about growing sunflowers is there comes a certain time of fall when squirrels will chew off every single sunflower head, often tearing down entire stalks, and either eat the not-quite-ripe seed or bury the entire head. So, were we growing sunflowers for looks and attracting pollinators? Or to feed neighborhood squirrels? We might have to get back to you on this.

Our 22 year old dwarf crepe myrtles always put on a good show during fall. The purple-y one seen above may be near the end of its life however, and didn’t grow well this year. The magenta one is still going strong.

These Viburnum berries hang over from the neighboring fence and a Northern Flicker taught us he liked them. Photographic evidence may be in the works.

Both the Cardinal Lobelia and 2 big clumps of sedum will find their way to other local gardeners soon. Mom divided the Lobelia and transplanted a small section somewhere else that, surprisingly, won’t block a sprinkler head this time. As soon as the hummingbirds have had their fill of nectar and the flowers have dropped, the rest, along with the sedum will be bagged, tagged, and given away.

Mom’s in love with the thought of drifts of white coneflowers. What you see here isn’t that, but maybe someday. Local builders tend to buy up all white coneflower starts early each spring to use in new building landscape plans, leaving next to nothing for regular people. We’re lucky to have found these dinky-sized ones 2 years ago and it seems, we’ve yet to find a really good spot for them to thrive in. Oh, to own a small greenhouse, Mom laments.

It was just a matter of time and treats. Neighborhood cat Blueberry, one of two black and white siblings and whose name is on his collar tag, has decided Mom with her trusty dried chicken and catnip treats isn’t so bad after all.

This was summer #2 for the west side back flower bed, formerly known as the Big Golden Arborvitae bed. Next month will mark 2 years since that beautiful 30-foot tall behemoth arborvitae threatened to fall over in a series of strong windstorms and cause serious and costly damage. We still miss it but don’t miss the mess and worry. Mom’s vision for a pollinator flower bed came true with a few pleasant surprises we hope to repeat next year. The digging raccoons, looking for grubs and earthworms and disrupting seedlings, may have other plans.

Inside, the Hoya wax plant bloomed on and off all summer long. Here’s the latest batch of buds that should open into white star-shaped flowers in a day or two.

All Colehaus Cats are doing reasonably well. Pia has taken up pooping on the floor instead of any of the five large litter boxes we have so we’re working on figuring out that behavior. Lucky for us we have laminate floors everywhere and no rugs down at the moment. Tessa and Quint have been seen snuggling recently (shh, don’t tell!), and Viola and Pia don’t seem to mind commandeering side-by-side kitchen chairs lately.

Mom’s back to working long 12-hour work days and Dad’s regularly using his fast-accruing vacation days to spend time at home. We’re still working through the timing of a couple of major expenses we hope to complete by the end of the year because it sure would be nice to go into 2025 without much worry of something else failing for once. And if some businesses would simply cooperate, we just might accomplish that. Or get pretty close to it. Fingers crossed.

Thanks for your visit today!

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A Colehaus Cats flashback:

2023 – Wordless Wednesday
2022 – No post
2021 – Easing into Monday
2020 – No post
2019 – Friday Bloopers
2018 – Celebrating Tock-tober
2017 – One Word Wednesday
2016 – No post
2015 – No post
2014 – No post
2013 – Quint Supports the Niblets
2012 – No post