Camellia's, etc

First bloom

Side of the house

The front of the house gets more shade so the camellias in the front are just starting to bloom

It's been almost a year since we put in the new landscaping. We had to wait until the hardscaping was done and by then it was early December - too late and it didn't help that it turned really cold right away. We were worried the plants would not survive. We lost a bunch of dwarf gardenias, but everything else has done fine. We waited through the spring and summer to see if the gardenias would miraculously rise from the ashes, but they did not. I made some effort to locate more dwarf gardenias, but in the end I just went to Home Depot and got some non-dwarf gardenias. They seem to be doing well.

We have enjoyed blooms on the magnolia for several months and just recently the camellias started blooming. We're ecstatic that the improvements we made have turned out as well as they did. Everything looks especially good right now with the fiery red dogwood leaves, the deep purple loropetalum and purple pixies, and the blooming camellias.

We had an incredibly beautiful weekend with high blue skies and a nip in the air to make it feel like fall. There's something about this time of year with all the fall colors, the cool temperatures, and the angle of the sun in the sky that make it special.

We had a couple more makeup soccer games this weekend. Today and Wednesday are our last games - hooray! It's the season that would never end. Adam has already started basketball practice and Derek is looking forward to starting street hockey practice in the next couple of weeks - as soon as they get the county inspectors to approve the new rink.