I find the immature seed cones on Thuja orientalis 'Weedom' (in the upper garden) so unusual and interesting.  

In preparation for Butter's arrival, Tom and I read all about introducing a new rabbit to a bonded pair as Basil and Parsley.  We read that females can be very territorial, so we SLOWLY with through the introduction process about which we had read.  All three rabbits were in the house, but Basil and Parsley were separated from Butter.  To make a long story short, Parsley never accepted Butter ... would chase her and pull out her hair.  Butter got so stressed out, that she started pulling out her own hair.  Our solution (much to Tom's dismay), was to make Parsley an inhouse bunny.  Basil and Butter have bonded with each other, and live outside in the "Taj maHutch."  Parsley lives in our sunroom.  Parsley has adjusted well as she now has Maple to groom her, and Tom and me to cuddle with her in front of the TV at night.

Oh, here's the one who never wanted a rabbit in the house!

A new family member!  In mid September, Tom and I paid a visit to the animal shelter to check out some bunnies.  Of course we didn't leave empty handed!  "Butter" is four years old, and is a lop eared bunny.  She was already named, so she fit in perfectly with our other food-named children:  Maple Sugar and Kiwi (dogs) and Basil and Parsley (bunnies).  Apparently it was just meant to be.

Maple is really good with all of our babies, and loves licking ears!  I don't trust Kiwi with the bunnies because whenever she catches squirrels or birds in the yard, it's all over.  She does, however, sit beside me on the sofa when I'm holding the bunnies.

Maple meets Butter for the first time.

Basil is eating his mouthful of Timothy hay while Butter reaches into the hay manager to help herself.

Raining again today.  
Our "waterfall" is racing over the steps by the gate and down the driveway.  The water flows from our woodland garden, through the backyard, over the steps, and under the gate and down the driveway to the storm drain at the street.  The storm drain in no way handles the water flowing through our yard and from up and down Tottenham Road ... the hazard of living at the bottom of a hill.  The city has been out to see the problem, has surveyed, and even run a camera down the storm drain.  At some point, the street will collapse we were told as the pipes are so old ... oh, boy!  We are supposedly "on the list as a high priority" which means we are at least two years out!

The downed tree broke a Japanese maple to the ground, badly broke down the Gardenia jasminoides 'Radicans' along the driveway, Ilex crenata 'Helleri' by the lamp post, and Ilex verticillata (winterberry hollies) by the mailbox.  The real heartbreaker was the tree landed on one of our crepe myrtles (Lagerstroemia indica 'Near East') along the driveway.  It was SEVERELY broken and split.  I so badly wanted to save it. Even after cutting it way back, there were still deep splits down the trunk.  Ivey, my nephew who lives in San Diego, said it looked like one of the cacti they have there.  (Not a compliment!)
After living with it for almost three months, I have resigned myself that it will never be the beautiful tree it had been, and was now a screaming example of "Crepe Murder."  Tom has tuned up our chainsaw, and will cut what remains of 'Near East,' and we've called a stump grinder who will come next week.  




The skirt (for lack of a better word) which this tree has created is quite beautiful and interesting (another reason I am heartsick about losing it).  It has been photographed by some local arborists who found it fascinating as well.

In case you are wondering ... did our neighbor offer to pay for our damage?  NO!!!  Grrr...
I told Tom we just needed to let it go ... our neighbor is older, and isn't a gardener so he has no idea of what we have lost.  We just had to eat this expense ... chomp, chomp, CHOMP!

My big heartbreak in the garden this year occurred in October when our next door neighbor had a very large tree in his front yard to uproot and fall across our property.  We knew the tree was not in good shape as you could easily see the dead area on almost half of the trunk at the base.  Oddly enough, the tree did make one final effort and leafed out.  Poor thing made it through Hurricane Florence, but Hurricane Michael with its wind and rain took it out.  I was sitting in my office when I heard it fall.  It fell across our driveway (luckily my car was in the garage, and Tom wasn't home) and into our front yard.  

More uprooted conifers from all the rain ...

Cupressus leylandii 'Silver Dust' 

We were able to right this Thuja occidentalis 'Yellow Ribbon' and support it with stakes and rope.

The weather has been so unusual.  I just heard on the news that we have had 18 inches of rain in the past three months ... Wow!  No wonder we are so soggy! Thus far, we haven't had much of a winter, but there is still time.  On Sunday, the temperature is supposed to be 68!!      
The ground is so saturated, we have had several conifers in the woodland garden to pull out of the ground.  By the well house we lost Cupressus arizonica 'Blue Ice' ... it just pulled out of the ground.  It was too big for Tom and me to try to stake it back up, so we had to remove it.  As Tom and I like to say, we have another planting opportunity!  If we look at things this way, it lessens the pain a bit when we lose a treasured plant.  

My first bouquet of camellia japonica blooms of the season.  So enjoyable to walk the garden and snip blooms to bring inside.