First thing this morning, I glanced out Alexis' bedroom window then did a double-take as I stared at the death everywhere. First frost. I would be really sad that my Morning Glories and Zinnias are dead, but I'm kind of looking forward to putting up the Christmas decorations soon. Since the garden and my snowmen can't coexist, it's for the best, I guess.

For a final farewell to summer/fall, I thought I would share some garden photos. I never remember to take pictures of things like that (I always figure I'll do it later, then later again, then it just never happens), but I did a slightly better job this year. I totally missed all the spring bulbs, containers, and roses, but at least I tried.

First, in order to truly appreciate my obsession, you have to see what our yard looked like when we bought our place. It's the townhouse on the right.

Oh, the ugly. We got rid of the baby poop brown a few years ago and I conned Daddy into ripping out those horrendous shrubs and put in a few zillion perennials and pretty trees. Of course I don't have a photo of just the front of the house, but trust me when I say it looks a million times better. Here's some garden photos:

My favorite part is the pond that we tucked under the kitchen window. You can't tell from these photos, but it's actually kind of big--as in 800 gallons big. At the beginning of the summer it housed four fish, but we lost two this year. One was a 20-pound Koi that was significantly smaller than the beast, Ernie. He's probably about as long as Alexis is tall and just might weigh as much as her. Alexis does her part and feeds them any time that we let her.

When we move, which will happen in the next year or I'm throwing a hissy fit, we I plan to take it all with us. I've had some of these plants for over ten years and already moved them from Ohio to two different houses in PA. They will survive one more. And the fish are definately going. I don't know how, but they are.

So long Fall . . . now bring on the Christmas decorations!