Fall has arrived

With each rainy day, the temperatures drop little by little.

Finally, the garden strip has gotten the clues. The "dodan-tsutsuji" or Enkianthus has turned red.

The lacy cut-leaf maple is also tinged in red.

Along the street, the pink-headed knot-weed, (which I do not consider a weed at all) is in full glory.

Some of the more delicate plants have come indoors to my third floor greenhouse.

Last year, this maple turned brown during the hot late summer but this year the few remaining leaves are also tinged in red.

When this tree was planted, I was told it was a snake-bark maple. I had asked the nursery for a maple variety that would turn red in the fall and not grow too fast.

Certainly, what I got is something else. This Acer cissifolium , or vine-leafed maple grows rather tall and sparse.
It's first year it had good color in the fall and it may fill out as the top is trimmed.  I  have gotten to like it and don't intend to change it for it's more colorful cousin.

I am on a count-down on this project. It needs to be finished up and be put in the mail as soon as possible.

These one-inch numbers have been driving me nuts. Only one more to go and this will become a little pocket. With some luck, one of my Portland grand kids will be reaching into that pocket in one month to take out a decoration to place on the Advent calendar tree.

I can say now, I should have been better at counting backwards!

Today is a holiday in Japan.

Paul left the house before I even got up in the morning to attend a board meeting of the Asian Rural Institute.

He will follow that with another engagement. Thinking I was on my own for the day, I set about quilting those remaining numbers.  Then, a call from my #3 daughter, Norie, who was in town for a class with Leia, and we agreed to meet for lunch.

Well, I can stitch on the train and there is never enough time together ... so why not?       Thank You Emperor Meiji , or whoever's birthday we are enjoying on this cold and rainy Friday. With all that lunch, I won't even have to stop for dinner and I may get that present finished yet!