Last night, we had the first burn of the season. And, then, I did more yard work. <great big grin>

The butterfly bush that has been swallowing everything at that end of the patio was crowding one of the chairs. It only had a handful of flower clusters left and those had very few open blossoms. So, I got the loppers out and freed the area where Chuck intended to sit.

We had a grand time burning 3 boxes of wood we’d accumulated from deadfall and yard waste.

When he went in ahead of me (the fire wasn’t quite done yet but it had died back enough that he was getting cold), I finished taking out the bush.

Now, we can see the beds over there more easily and, in a month, we’ll burn that bush.

There is a gardenia at the bottom left, a hyrangea above that, the edge of a compost bin to the left of my herb bed that’s growing oregano and parsley, an empty shepherd’s crook, a pot of autumn fern, a bed of collards and a bed of kale, both draped with green netting to stymie the deer. The butterfly bush is behind it all. And there’s the log that my nephew gave us to grow chicken-of-the-woods mushrooms. You remember, the one that had already been contaminated with turkey tails. The tag on the upper left is that bottom of a wind chime.