Another sunny day! Every day that is as good as this is treasured as we approach November; time is really flying now; it seems only last week I was saying it was incredible that it was the end of September!
Apart from last Thursday when it rained and thundered for the best part of the day the last seven days have been lovely. The olives are harvested and the oil safely stored so all is well with the world. I’ll post about the harvest and how they were made into oil in the next few days.

Arbutus tree at the very top of the slope really on the slope path is full of flowers and bees enjoying a late source of nectar
The ground in covered again now with new growth and new seedlings and the rosemary is flowering, attracting many bees and butterflies.
What is happening weather-wise in your part of the world? I know the UK has had some bad storms, has your garden suffered any damage, I sincerely hope not.
looking good Christina! I am with you on Oct flying by…Happy Halloween!
Are your kids trick and treating?
Of course! Monster high….and a little monster 😉
Your slope is looking well furnished with lots of lovely foliage and you still have so many flowers to keep your bees happy. I found that my Hypericum prolificum has lost 2 of its main branches, I must have missed it on Monday when I checked round the garden after the storm. All the mess from Monday has now been cleared and we are back to normal thank goodness, the weather is very calm today.
I’m glad you didn’t suffer too much from the storms, hopefully the Hypericum will recover.
It’s looking so green and lovely again Christina. I do love the effect of those flowers on the Arbutus. And isn’t your Perovskia amazing… still flowering! The last picture is interesting. I don’t know Scoparia, so will have to look that one up. Look forward to seeing the post about the olives. Have a happy Halloween! (Has it caught on in Italy? A non-event here! Some people got to fancy-dress parties in the pubs, but that’s about all!)
Halloween isn’t really important here, shops have costumes and masks but there isn’t a ‘culture’ of trick or treating’.
One of the things that I don’t like about fall is that it flies by. So much to do at the nursery before winter. Happy Halloween, or is that just an American thing. I went to my wholesale shrub nursery today and everyone was in costume.
Halloween has been adopted in England although we have another festival on 5th November when we celebrate Guy Fawkes trying to blow up parliament! Here in Italy it is All Saints day tomorrow so a public holiday when everyone goes to the cemetery to take flowers to family graves.
Everything looks so green and cool. Here things are still pretty green, though there is more fall color and today we are having a very soggy Halloween. I love that picture of those grasses – are they Pennisetum?
Yes, that’s right; Pennisetum villosa
This has been an incredible month of sunny days and chilly nights, making for the best Autumn color in recent memory. First frost arrived on the 28th…a little early, I think. Now the rains will set in and things will shut down. No complaining here…it was a great run.
So does your garden get covered with snow for all the winter? What temperatures do you have during winter?
The Pacific Northwest has a fairly mild climate. Hard freezes are rare and we get positively giddy when it snows. We were actually snowed in for a week in 2008. It felt like an adventure.
A little like here then, when we were snowed in for a few days a couple of years ago, it was quite fun.
Looking good Christina! How lovely to have had such good weather for your olive harvest. I’m kickig myself, I was sent seed for Kochia trichophylla but didn’t get around to sowing any. I’m not entirely sure where I would have put it, but it would have been a nice problem to have. Weather has been mild here too, though the wind and the rain arrived this evening along with a drop in temperature. The storm missed us though.
Glad the storm passed you by; some places were hit hard and were without power for a long time which makes life very difficult.
Happy to see your garden is still thriving in the good weather (and at your hand, of course). Interesting, the Arbutus tree.
The Arbutus is a beautiful tree or large shrub that is native here.
Looking up from the gate is just stunning!!! What a gorgeous garden you have, I could look at your photos for hours. Your Perovskia is really impressive – a true hero in the garden I think, it seems to have lasted for ages now and it’s just lovely.
Thank you Anna, you’ll be making me big headed! The perovskia has been flowering since June, one of the only plants that truely flowers through the drought.
Love your kochia, so pretty! And I cannot believe your perovskia is STILL blooming – that is utterly amazing!
Is the Tulbaghia grown strictly as an ornamental, or do you eat it as well?
I grow Tulbaghia as an ornamental, I didn’t know it was edible, I’ll check as there is lots so do you use the leaves like garlic chives?
I also was shocked at how quickly Oct flew by us…and it was good weather until our freeze last week..so the garden is done but with a slight warm up right after the freeze who can tell…maybe next week I will see a bloom or 2….of course nothing like yours. Can’t wait to see the olive posts.
Thanks for the reminder, I’m about to write it now.