Autumn Stroll

First I want to thank all of you who helped Suzanne McMinn by voting for her to get the job she dearly needs. If you are like me, you would like to know some followup.

Suzanne won the first round thanks to you and many others who voted daily. She had 18,632 votes. The runner-up received 11,506 votes. That put Suzanne 7,126 votes out in front. Yes, she has a huge readership, I hope Sam-e takes note of how much traffic she would bring to their site.

The second round requires the top 20 applicants to produce a short video (I think she said 90 seconds.), write an essay, and go through another round of voting.

We can visit SAM-e.com from Tuesday, November 17, 2009 – Monday, December 7, 2009 to vote for our favorite of the top 20 candidates. http://www.sam-e.com/ I will be there and hope you will, too.

And now for the show!


The weeping crab-apple is full of fruit this year. The fruit of this tree is not as astringent as that of the other crab-apple trees. The birds and animals love it once it freezes and goes soft.





The Leatherleaf Viburnum is practically evergreen here, but it will turn brown later when the temperatures are more severe;

while the asparagus has already turned into a golden nimbus.



The Goldflame spirea turns into a variegated shrub, pretty little thing.

There is no doubt about what provided this carpet!

Red Maple
on city property in middle of street.

Some Burning Bushes, also known as Winged Euonymus, (Euonymus alatus) are pinkish,


most are bright red in the landscape,

(Burning Bush and Dogwood Tree)

while others look burgundy. The ones in front of our house would grow large as the house if allowed. I wait until they have finished their autumn show and leaves have dropped, then I have someone prune them back severally. Also, in this photo is our only remaining sugar maple street tree. It is probably the prettiest one on the street. I think I know why. Last summer we realized our sewer line between the house and street was broken and the tree had roots growing into the large drain pipe, so it got plenty of water and nutrients daily for no telling how long!

Sugar Maples are my favorite in the landscape. However, I have read that the red maples are more aggressive and they are killing out our native Sugar Maples in the forests, turning the woodlands predominately red instead of their natural oranges, yellows, and golds.

Even worse is the vigorous Norway Maple which is extremely prolific and produces hundreds of viable seeds annually. It is still sold on the market, as are other species that are on the Federal and states' invasive plant lists. Predictions are: that in time North America will lose its diversity of tree species as the dominating species beat out the natives until it becomes like Europe in that it has only a few species in the natural forests. What a loss that will be not only for the maple syrup industry, but for future generations of school children! I can't imagine not getting to study all kinds of trees and collecting from a wide range of tree species for their leaf collections for school and maybe scouts.

Until then let us visually and mentally wallow in the riches of our Sugar Maples' beauty.

View from our front porch.