Autumn has arrived ... I think

When we first moved back to the Nerima home, I brought with me some spider lily bulbs moved from former gardens.
At that time there was little space in our over-grown flower bed and some of those bulbs I planted in a neighbouring weed bed.  Each year they increase and get more showy.

This is how they looked yesterday at 6:30 am on my way to school.

After a summer of very hot sauna weather, it suddenly became cooler.
Monday night I pulled out a quilt to sleep under after a summer of either nothing or a thin gauzy wrap.

Tuesday evening I added a light down comforter.

I can't believe the sudden change. It is in keeping with the spider lilies that sneak up before the leaves and then pop open shouting "Surprise"!

Though the pink ones have had their day and faded, the red ones among the azalea bushes on the east side of the house are showing their best features.

This is a very narrow space for a garden between the street and our pink house shown behind.

Though I bemoan the lack of garden space, I find it amazing how much can be crammed into what I do have.

This month has been rain, rain, and more rain.

The garden is happier than it has ever been but I am getting a bit tired of toting umbrellas with me whenever I go out and wet feet. (My boots caused blisters in my ankles the first time out and when I tried zori, I ended up with blisters where the thongs rubbed when wet. Now my shoes are waiting for a sunny day to be hung on the gate to dry.

This week I finished the inner border on the nine-patch.

I have a little in-the-ditch quilting to go before I experiment with marking the blue flowered border.

The border is about five inches wide and I am thinking of a lattice-style cable which should be easy to draft and place, lined up with the outer nine-patches.

As a plan "B" I might be able to mark it on the back and quilt from the reverse side.

I have a few other projects nagging me from the sidelines but, though there is no rush to get this quilt done, I really don't like to have too many things going at once. The rest of my life is rather like running in all directions at once so I prefer to keep my home projects a bit more under control.

I just had to add this last picture.

Every year, one of the homes along my walk through the neighbourhood to the train station, plants mini-tomatoes in their flower bed by their front gate.

As I pass by, I watch those little tomatoes form and change from little green balls to bright red fruit just asking to be tasted.

Then, they get older and split and fall apart and not one seems to have been tasted.
It puzzles me why they bother to plant the tomatoes year after year if they don't intend to pick them.

Last year there was a huge clump of crab-grass coming up through the pavement right in the center of their gate. After walking past it for months and seeing it stepped on, then going to seed, I finally pulled it up as I passed... confessions of a weed-a-holic? I wonder how big a garden I would need to keep me focused on my own space and leave other people's gardens out of mind.