Beauty Berries and Autumn Changes

Some pictures from my November garden -- so different from just a few weeks ago, when the Halloween decorations had to compete with the asters and swamp sunflowers!  The leaves have dropped from the beautyberry bushes.

The frothergilla on the far left has turned reddish/orange.

The fairies have snuggled into their house and shut the door tightly.

We had our first killing frost last week, so the tomatoes in the purple pots by the sidewalk and the okra in the bags in the median are history.

Lots of leaves and pine needles.  I'll keep the pumpkin there until after Thanksgiving, then I will move her to a place of honor in the vegetable garden, where her goddess-y self can return to the soil.

Here you can see the color of the frothergilla and the sumac trees, as well as the newly painted brick on the house.  The shutters need to go back up, and the trim needs to be painted.

We had hoped to have the front completely finished by Thanksgiving, but we had to drive to Nashville for a fencing tournament this past Saturday, and yesterday was rainy.  Today has been very rainy also, with over 2 inches in the rain gauge since yesterday.  So the garden has changed substantially again since just a few days ago.  Almost all the leaves are gone now from the trees and bushes, and just a few of the purple berries remain.  Leaves are inches deep on the ground, the sidewalks, the gutters.  Fortresses made of bagged leaves barricade our neighbors' sidewalks -- 20, 30, 50 bags of leaves in front of each house!  (not us, we mulch of course!)