The beautiful dogwood tree at our porch entrance that offers a magnificent display of pink blooms early in spring, provides the last of autumn’s color ablaze in a bright Chinese red. Today was its final glow. By day’s end, the tree’s branches stood bare against the sky at twilight.
I spent a good part of the day in our gardens preparing them for winter. So much to cut back and haul to the compost pile. Every year at this time, I promise myself that I won’t add more garden space come springtime. I have expanded the gardens every year for about five years. It’s a wonderful form of relaxation to be out in the garden, deciding what to plant where. I’m always moving plants around. While I garden, the dogs play out in the field for hours. Every-so-often they come over to the fence and just hang out watching me. Today was a perfect temperature to be outside. I love doing yard work at this time of year – no bugs! It’s great, and the dogs love it, too.
Midway through the day, I took a break to give James a trim. He had been brushed and bathed (toenails trimmed, too) yesterday. James will be twelve years old in December. He has a hard time handling this all in one day, so I break it up for him. Like all my dogs, he 
enjoys his one-on-one time with me. He’s such a special guy. I love trimming him up so he looks really good – clean and neat. Once done, he was back out in the field romping with his pals – and I was back in the garden. With that storm headed our way, we wanted to make the most of this beautiful day. There’s plenty of time ahead to be inside.