The second leg of my neighborhood walk

I was getting a bit tired as I continued my walk.  This was more strenuous than I envisioned.  I was hoping to get my back in shape, but I think I put a bit more stress on it as I continued my walk.  So far, I have walked a little over a mile.

Although I was hoping to see more Halloween decorations, I was met with more flowers and greenery.

Pots of blooming flowers caught my eye before I saw the ghosts hanging from the tree.

I've always admired this house, although it was condemned and ready to be torn down when some local architect purchased it.  To my knowledge, no one has ever lived in the house, although they keep building onto it.  In fact, while I was walking by, there were people there who were working.  The owners brought in all the landscape stones and materials, because originally, the yard was a muddy mess.

Mums on the porch, mums on the walkway, and mums on the bench with the birdhouse decorations, made this fun to see as I passed by.

I had planned to walk straight home when I got sidetracked by this house and its side yard.  Talk about impressed!  As a result, I headed down a side street I had never walked on before.

I was glad I did, because I was greeted with several pumpkins on this porch.

I swear this house reminded me of a beach cottage.  The crisp white and turquoise screamed ocean to me.  As a result, the pumpkin seemed a bit out of place here.

Turning the corner, I decided to snap a photo of a tree with a small amount of flowers around it, as well as the planter box on the porch.

Turning yet another corner, I had to laugh at these decorations.  It looked like spring (the spring flowered banner), summer (geraniums and flag), and autumn (the pumpkin) were all represented here.

Here was an autumn inspired yard I was hoping for.  I was thrilled to see the hay bales and wagon, along with the pumpkin lights and other pumpkins that were tastefully gracing this yard.

I stepped a bit closer to see the tasteful vignette they had created in their side yard.  I think these must be antique lovers.

I turned another corner, walked a bit, and was greeted with a lovely lavender and pink landscape.

What looked like autumn foliage at a distance, turned out to be dead plants in the hanging baskets.  All was not lost, though, because the flowering bush (I had no idea what it was) was gorgeous.

It was obvious these people liked bird house ornaments, and maybe a bit of clutter, too.  Thankfully, I only had about three more blocks before I was home.

Can you tell I live in an older, well established neighborhood?  Many of the wood houses were built in the late 1940s to early 1950s, while the brick houses were mostly from the 1930s. According to my abstract, my house was built in 1920 and is a true Craftsman style, even though the inside was gutted and changed due to a fire the year before I purchased the house.

All that landscaping I saw on my walk encouraged me to, if not mow, at least plant my Mexican Sage in the ground.  Silly me!

It took over an hour, and a 15 minute break, to get this plant out of the pot.  I had no idea I would work so hard, or I might have cut my walk short.

In the process, you can see how many branches I accidentally broke as I was digging and pushing and cursing while trying to get that plant out of its pot.

You can also see how much dirt I unearthed (pun intended) from that pot before the sage was free.  As soon as I took the photo, I placed the dirt back into the original pot the sage had been uprooted from and returned these pots I couldn't get apart to their storage area.

It's fairly obvious this plant was now a mere shadow of its former self, after I manhandled it into the ground and added cardboard around it.  Hopefully, I'll be able to keep a few of the weeds and grass out of the area and it will have a chance to grow next year.  Incidentally, I was glad I did this, because Friday it rained, which turned to sleet, which turned to snow.  The only sunshine this weekend is in these photos!

And because I can't waste anything, I filled a pot with the rest of the Mexican Sage.  I'm better at arranging artificial flowers, because these didn't want to go where I placed them, especially after I added water, even though I used a frog in the pot.

What a difference a day made.  To prove the weather changed dramatically in a single day, here is the view from my front porch Friday morning.  Even the trees were starting to shed their now yellow leaves.  It definitely felt like autumn had arrived.

I hope you enjoyed my walk before it turned nasty in my area.  How is your weather holding up?