Precious November Days

These November days when the temperature warms in the middle of the day you can work outside comfortably unmolested by mosquitoes and other biters. Later in the late afternoon towards dark a few of them are still around taking advantage of their last chances for that free meal.
These fleeting days are precious. Ed spends some time cleaning up garden beds. Those he doesn't get to will wait till spring. Here the debate whether to clean the garden of all debris or leave it alone for the wildlife is settled by Mother Nature. She decides how much remains untouched.

Late fall always brings on Ed's stone wall fever. Once you find out you love to build stone walls there is always a new place to put one. Here the pile of wall stone grows at the site of the next project. Usually Ed's wall building is a solitary process, but based on the last few days it looks like building  this  wall will include a lot of socializing with our neighbors and others. In this area stone walls are plentiful but many of them are falling down. People are intrigued to see one being built.

With most of the garden looking brown black or gray in response to our freezing nights, I am amazed to see this butterfly bush still looking green. Planted on the south side of the stone wall is apparently a perfect location for it.

The garden appears to be finished with flowers except for Johnny jump ups. These little purple and yellow flowers are spread all through the garden. I have a weakness for these hardy flowers. I guess you could say they grow here as a cover crop. In some places they are weeds and have to be pulled. In other places I let them stay. Some winters I see them blooming under the snow. I can't imagine the garden without them and I won't have to. They are as sure to come up as the sun in the east.