Fall/Autumn Garden Mums In My Garden

When the rest of my garden is looking sad as the summer blooms are fading, I delight in the colour that garden mums display as they brighten my the yard.  I've planted several in my front and back garden and they are a wonderful burst of colour at this time of year.

Soft Solder Vintage Glass Marble Necklace - Hot Off The Bench

I came across these old glass marbles (I think this type of marble is called a slag) in our wall unit.....they belong to TP and he gave me permission to repurpose some of them in my jewelry designs.  I used the Tiffany solder technique with this pendant.  I wanted so see the marble but not lose it, so I caged it in a decorative way and added a bail.  The pendant hangs from a stainless steel ball chain.  It's a long boho style necklace to wear over a long bulky sweater and it's listed at our Etsy Shop.

Soft Soldered Flower Pendant Necklace

This necklace will be a gift to a special gardener friend of mine.  I've used pink Czech glass flower beads and the metal work and solder are lead free.  I patinaed, sanded and polished for a rustic look and added a patinaed stainless stain ball chain.  It's a long necklace that will easily go over her head.
I hope she likes it!

I think I may add some similar styles to my Etsy shop.

A Quiet Summer

It's been an interesting summer for me.  At the beginning of the summer, while gardening, I was bitten by a spider.  It was a nasty bite and I was prescribed antibiotics at the hospital.  Weeks later I was hit with vertigo that lasted up until a few weeks ago....so it's been a pretty quiet summer for me.  But all of that is in the past.

Today, is a glorious warm autumn day so I took a photo of the last of my tomatoes and mini peppers.  We've had wonderful salads and tomato sauce with more sauce in the freezer for the winter.

I took the shot of the butterfly with my phone a few weeks back.  This small white butterfly kept moving around my lavender....I don't think it helped that I still had vertigo.  Anyway, I think it's called a Cabbage White or Pieris Rapae.

Everyone has chrysanthemums (mums) in the fall, and so do I.  At the end of October I remove the plant from the container and plant them in my garden for fall colour.  Asters are a wonderful fall plant too but they are hard to find around here.  So I guess I was lucky when I came across these plants a few years back. They're nice and big now and the bumble bees love them.  I have 3 plants and each one must have at least 25 bees at any one time. These little guys look a bit blurry because they're busy getting pollen.  And I took the shot with my phone.... my vertigo is gone!