My shady backyard hosts a small number of  Black Walnut trees. A mighty surplus of black walnuts kept me quite busy for a month- gathering, setting up a drying table, preparing them to dry, and ultimately giving away bags of them.

It is easy to identify a black walnut lover- their hands are stained as dark as furniture! I know this from personal experience- I was anxious that the stain would not be gone  from my hands before Thanksgiving.

I plan to do a little baking for Christmas, and the walnuts from my own trees will be a special treat.

I enjoy watching the birds that visit my garden.  Yes, I have a pair of binoculars or two, and yes I own several bird guides- I guess that makes me a birdwatcher.

My particular favourite bird this year has been a blue jay who visits irregularly.  He is big, noisy, and thrashes about in small bushes as if he were a whirlwind.  He makes a beautiful entrance.

In order to tempt him to visit more often, I filled all my bird feeders today- mixed seeds in one, corn in several and cakes of suet placed in their holders.  Alas, the water in the birdbath was frozen solid.  Tomorrow I will empty the tea kettle into it after breakfast!

 

 

 

Today’s garden work was concentrated on cleaning up after my trees.

 I do think that trees are worth the price that one pays for shade and beauty, but one must admit, they are not tidy.

This year, the acquisition  of a yard sweeper made the gathering of fallen leaves much easier on my poor neck and back.  Most of the leaves are down on my property, so once these leaves are picked up, that will be that.

While “sweeping” my lawn, I also gathered more black walnuts for the squirrels (I have gathered enough for my family and have them drying on screens) and gathered sticks for the woodpile to use for kindling.

 

 

Miss Marple was a thoroughly organized person with a tidy garden.   I am, on the other hand, NOT  an organized person and certainly do not keep a tidy garden.  In order to keep up  with my  interest in Living Miss Marple,  I have resolved to do one or two garden chores a day, as I am able.

Today, I transplanted a large Hosta to a more suitable, shady location and cleaned leaves and debris in my garden gate area.   There is always something to be done in my garden!  By the way, in Britain, a Hosta is sometimes referred to as  a plantain lily.

 

 

 

 Vintage hats are placed on top of neatly coiffed hair. They are pinned into place with hat pins, and not taken off as men’s hats are.

The hat pins are usually a pair and are quite like long sewing pins, and unless highly decorative, are hidden under the ribbon of the hat band.

With winter fast approaching, a wool hat seems in order.

 

I have 2 large roses that grace my front door – one with an especially lovely scent.  My father has always made it a point, upon visiting, to enjoy the best smelling rose he says he has ever smelled!

Knowing the the end of blooming season will be any day,  I clipped the last blooms and saved them for him.   I decided to make rose petal potpourri so he could enjoy his favorite rose  a little longer.

A rose by any other name would smell just as sweet~William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet.

Agatha Christie’s character, Jane Marple, lived in a time and place in which a lady was rarely without a hat when not in her home.

There were special hats for church, black hats (with veils) for funerals, everyday hats for trips to the shops, straw hats for summers, and warm wool hats for winter.

I discovered that there are many things that I need to learn about hats.  These include which style of hat to choose, what materials they are made of, how to wear a hat, how to care for, clean, and store hats, and how to accessorize a hat to keep it fashionable.

Here is an example of a hat Miss Marple might have worn in the summertime, being that it is a lightweight, light coloured brimmed hat.  I love the classic black and tan design and the ribbon is very lady like.

 

 

 

In my home state of Ohio, the autumn leaves are ablaze with color.

Reds range from scarlet to rose,

Oranges from pumpkin to peach,

Yellows from sunflower to pale butter.

There are still greens – the evergreens

and those few majestics shrouded in green until the last.

Don’t forget the browns and the tans, so shy, almost beyond notice.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rose hips are the orange or red fruits of the rose that appear after the blooming season.

Miss Marple surely would have brewed rose hip tea on an autumn day as I did mid morning today – for the first time!

I harvested a small handful and simmered the rinsed hips for a few minutes until I could lightly crush the pods with a potato masher, then poured the brew through a tea strainer into my cup, added sweetener, and enjoyed my first taste of rose hip tea. It was quite delicious and I will definitely look forward to drinking it again when more rose hips ripen.

Any fan of Miss Marple knows that she enjoyed her cottage garden.  At this time of year, most gardens are tucked in to bed for the duration of winter, but there are still important tasks to be done before the ground freezes.  Today my husband and I planted 2 types of Daffodils -both from Holland- pink mixed Daffodils and double blooming Replete Daffodils.

 

 

Miss Marple would have approved.