Most of the leaves are off the trees, revealing some treasures that were previously hidden. I'm always intrigued by birds' nests. Like their makers, there is a lot of variety to be found. There are different shapes and sizes, lots of materials used and quite a range of craftsmanship involved. Some are carefully and intricately woven while others are more slap dash in appearance. I guess birds can be like people in that way. This nest even had a bit of plastic woven into it - maybe a bit of weather proofing.

And I also came across a praying mantis egg sac. I always wonder how many hatch out of each casing. It looks is it could be a lot.

The shop is nearly ready for the holiday season. Our holiday open house will be held Friday and Saturday December 1&2 from 9am to 5pm. We'll have specials in the shop, plants available in the greenhouse, prize drawings and herbal refreshments. We hope you can stop by and enjoy our herbal take on the holidays. Our regular hours (Tuesday-Saturday 9-5) continue through December 22.

Now that it's November, there are some signs of fall. Our maple tree finally colored up, although I noticed it took ten days more for the front of the tree to turn red than it did the back of the tree. It looks like we're at the peak of fall leaf season.

In contrast, yesterday John and I worked outside weeding flower beds in T-shirts. I walked around the yard and counted two dozen different varieties of flowers blooming - everything from blue flax to zinnias. We've lived here twenty years and I know we didn't do much outside work in November when we first moved here, except for final clean up. If the weather forecast is correct, we might have a killing frost this week.

When I'm not working outside, I'm preparing the shop for the upcoming holiday season. I wait until November to bring out Christmas items. Before Halloween seems way too early for Christmas decorating to me.

Be on the lookout for our holiday newsletter which will be out in mid-November. Our hours are Tuesday-Saturday 9am to 5pm until Christmas.