Fall in the Valley

Fall happens overnight here in the valley. We went from 80-90 degree days to overnight lows in the 30s and 40s in the span of a couple of days. But luckily, it gets up into the 70s during the day. It’s a gorgeous time–one of my favorite seasons in Yakima!

The frost came in a caught living things in the meadow by surprise–like this guy:

We have been taking advantage of the perfect Fall weather to get some things done outside. One of the big projects we did this summer was remove all the fencing that separated the meadow from our tiny front and back yards. We removed wire mesh, barbed wire, fence posts. You name it, we had it. The next step will be to fill in along the former fence line with fill dirt to even out the transition from yard to meadow. Last weekend I transplanted flowers and shrubs that were in the way of what will now be part of our much larger yard. We will seed and fertilize the lawn and meadow so that hopefully, within a couple of years, we will have one incredible, large yard. We will add some large trees, decide where our vegetable garden will go, where our cutting flower garden will go and where we will keep our hens. If anyone likes landscape design, and would like to practice designing a 1.2 acre lot, I’ll happily send you my lot plan and you can have at it. I have no idea where to start.

We have some wood fence posts still around that are architectural pieces in the landscape. I like them and had to negotiate with Dylan so he wouldn’t rip them all out. We compromised. So, yesterday, the girls and I looked through one of my favorite books, , to plan what we will do with these random wood structures. The plan involves Zinnias, Dahlias and Sunflowers.

Imagine this:

surrounded by these:

Beautiful, huh?

We also added some outdoor lighting to our covered patio. It’s a nice way to warm up the space and will give us much-needed light when the days get shorter. Our winter daylight can end at 4:30 in the afternoon. That can feel a little overwhelming at times. Surrounding ourselves with warm light wherever we can helps us make it through those very short days. I used globe lights that I found at Target. So fun! They remind me of the lights used on Christmas tree lots.

What are you working on this Fall? I’d love to hear about your projects.