Fall color finally arrives

Fall has been rather slow developing this year probably because of the ample rain and mild temperatures. Today really felt like fall, a bit cold with a possible frost tonight, and finally fall color is beginning to develop in our gardens. This is a favorite Japanese maple positioned at the north end of the lily pond in a clear line of sight from our breakfast nook. Not only does this tree develop some great fall color, but then it gets reflected in the lily pond when the light is just right. The sumacs, bottlebrush buckeyes, black gum, sassafras, and dogwoods are all turning color and by next week things should be quite colorful. 

So long, and thanks for all the fish!

The Phactors pride themselves on having a wild-life friendly yard; it provides lots of cover, water, and food.  This is why so many critters are seen and live on our urban property.  Mrs. Phactor was quite excited to add the great blue heron to her yard life list, but not so happy to see that most of the gold fish living in the lily pond were the price to be paid for the lengthening of her bird list. Yes, with one exception, they were just gold fish, but you do grow attached to them just the same.  Of course TPP grows attached to the plants the bunnies eat too.  So a fish every now and again, no problem, but that was one big, hungry bird.  And thanks to the effective heron discouragement practices of our neighbors (way to go guys!), our big fish were easy pickings. The problem has more or less solved itself as no one, especially a hungry heron, will fish in an empty pond.  But remember this bird, we know where you live!   

New top predator! Reaction mixed!

On several occasions TPP has sought the assistance of top predators, some natural help to control the bunny and squirrel populations, welcoming them to our wildlife friendly estate.  Yesterday and today a new top predator appeared, a great blue heron. This was very exciting because it's the biggest bird ever to visit our property and its a new species for Mrs. Phactor's bird list, and it is a top predator.  But of course it preys upon the wrong wildlife. Fortunately our pond doesn't make the best heron fishing ground because it's too deep, and the neighbors' smaller, shallower pond with many more small gold fish was more attractive, but until a complete fish census has been completed, feelings are mixed about our new visiting top predator. Supposedly a pair of red-tailed hawks have been seen building a nest high atop the lighting towers of a neighboring institution of higher education only 3 blocks away.  Now we talking top predator!

New image for a new year

As much as TPP hates messing with things that work, after awhile you do sort of feel the need for a change, and no, he's not commenting on his marriage.  The tree peonies had been the header image for some time, a year or so, and it seemed like a good idea to change the header image for this blog before forgetting how to do it altogether.  Even then it took a few tries to get the image reduced in size enough so it didn't run off the screen and to get the aspect ratio correct, or at least compatible with the header.  Hope you like this, it's part of our garden showing a new addition, a pergola-bench next to the waterlily-lotus pond.