Bye September and October

We must have been sleeping off the effects of our kitchen remodel because September came and went without a single post and October almost did as well. We even missed our ninth house-i-versary (that's totally a thing). At least it wasn't the big One Oh. The truth is, we didn't really do much to the house all last month. This month, however, has been all about the yard. It's definitely fall, folks.

First though, a bunch of pictures from the summer that I never posted because I was too distracted by kitchen stuff. Our butterfly bush by July had gotten higher than our gutters. Until it fell down under its own weight and just sort of lay on the grass for the rest of the summer (leaving a nasty empty spot under it where all the grass died, but at least the butterflies were happy):

 Our new crepe myrtle did indeed bloom a cotton candy pink and seems to be happy in our yard.

We had a ton of black-eyed Susans and quite a few echinacea (though we'd still like more of the latter):

 Even our tiny primrose was happy and bloomed much of the summer (foot for size reference):

 Some red tiger lilies:

 Some fragrant pink lilies:

But of course, all that is in the past. A few weeks ago ago, we trimmed back, cut down, and otherwise groomed the front gardens. We got rid of the dried husks of black eyed susans and cut down the long iris leaves that we always leave until spring. We cut the butterfly bushes back to almost nothing, after the one near the house had grown so big that it was taller than the house and then had fallen into the yard and driveway (we didn't want to trim it too early because the butterflies and bees were enjoying the flowers so much). For a couple weeks in a row, our yard waste collection looked like this:

We've had a few other yard adventures that I hope to share with you soon. Let hope that almost two-month hiatus doesn't hit again!