During this weather, the birds have been busy harvesting seeds from the flower stalks still hanging around in a whiskey barrel. Hmmm... sure, I left them there on purpose.
That's the barrel, at the bottom of the photo. Photo from Christmas Eve.
Yesterday, we checked on our collapsed cloche. The top was all the way to the ground! The "ribs" didn't break, just bent. We removed the ice and the plastic.
With a little pulling on the "spine" along the top, the ribs straightened out some. On a sunny day, we'll see if we can work out the kinks further. As you can see, all of the plants under it have been squished and frozen! 
What? You didn't know? Now there is just the gift for the 21st year!
The Pocket Decoder Geocoin. DH's honey-do list will never be the same!
It will stay with me and check in and out of caches or events I visit.
In the afternoon...it proceeded to collapse! I'll investigate the damage tomorrow.
Some memory! A few days before, we had thrown some sunflower seeds out for the birds and squirrels. The icy topping kept the seeds from sinking into the snow. Then more snow arrived. These guys where burrowing down to the icy layer and popping up whenever they had success.
This is the orchid DH sister gave us in Oct. 2005. Every year, about this time, it blooms (& for a long time). I've divided it once and now both pots need divided again. I always thought orchids where finicky but this one seems quite content! Maybe it is simply who it came from. See more of Sis' special gifts in earlier posts: the Moose, the Angel and the Potholders.
It sits in our magic kitchen window. That's my grandmother's pig shaped cutting board behind it. We have spent a lot of time at this window watching those hummingbirds during these frozen days.
...And just in case we never thaw, I'm growing my own coffee trees. 
This is one of the Anna's Hummingbirds we've been seeing this winter. We've seen both a male and a female, but it hard to tell if there are more than one of each. Anna's Hummingbirds remain in this area and along the USA west coast year around. I think this is the one that spent the night in the garage, earlier this week. This was the best shot I could get through the kitchen window. Even when just sitting, they keep something moving most of the time. You can see the white Christmas lights we put on our patio last year. We can see them though the kitchen window and they added a bright spot in the dark nights. Then we decided we like them there year-round!
Saturday and Sunday brought snow and very cold temperatures. It also brought me a throat infection, so I didn't even look outside much until today, and then only briefly.
Chilled chard. 
Garden photo is from Sunday, cool and rainy, and very different from the pleasant Saturday we spent trimming up a lot of the flower and herb flower stalks. Compare to the November photo. We've put the last of the mown leaves in the garden beds and have let the work to the worms for the winter.
Broccoli and lettuce in the window frame cloche. 
Blossom I was a sweet Geocaching Travel Bug I sent out to see the world two years ago. Unfortunately, the geocaching world proved too much for a butterfly, and she has been lost. 
While we had only a little rain during our outing yesterday, we did run in to some mud, by the Green River. DH tried jumping across the spot, but lost a shoe! But, then he pulled off a great yoga move and didn't get his sock muddy! Mud was a clue, though, so we knew we must be close.
Came across this massive stump, now a nurse log to a replacement tree.
And finally, at the end of a rope, down a natural hole, we found the cache.
It is that time of year when we move from blossoms, although some are still going, to fungi and lichen. Found this beauty during our Geocaching outing, yesterday. Its color (a little more orange than the camera captured) really stood out amongst the greens and grays.
I believe it's a form of jelly fungi, perhaps dacrymyces palmatus. Might be aka Fairy Butter, but I'm having trouble finding a consistent common name. 
While just about everyone is impacted by the economic situation, last week, I witnessed first hand the willingness of the Renton community to help out others. For National Hunger and Homelessness Awareness week, Way Back Inn volunteers arranged to have a food and housing supply drive at the Fred Meyer in Renton Center. WBI has a number of houses in Renton (also some in Kent and Tukwila) for homeless families with children. 
I was surprised how good the applesauce tasted! Then the first of the pumpkins went in the oven. 
The broccoli looks good under the window frame cloche (all the other seedlings were eaten by slugs). We've been harvesting lettuce and chard leaves from these plants already.
The calendula is also blooming in the cloche (but with a little mildew which came along with fall). The bright spot inside is noticeable from outside the cloche also.
Many of the leaves have yet to fall, but last weekend, we did mow up some leaves and grass to start in-place composting. Each fall, we add the grass catcher to the mower and catch the chopped up leaves and grass for composting.
Even done like this, it does warm up inside the pile.
Decided to throw some coffee bags over parts to see if that helps. I think it will let in some moisture, but keep it from being sopping wet all of the time. I hope it encourages wormies to do their thing. They are always present under any coffee bags I use in the garden. 
While we did remove the remains of tomatoes, beans, squash plants, I cannot bring myself to cut back the flower and herb seed heads yet. I'll leave them for now in case the chickadees and goldfinch are looking for a snack.
Making progress here. Compared to yesterday's post & week old photo, you can see they are now orange enough for Halloween! After they ripen up further, some will go out to the garage for cool storage. Some will be cooked to eat or to freeze. 
The pumpkins have been in the house since the big frost. Washed, in a warm(er) and bright spot, they have been coming into their color. This photo is from last weekend. Will they make it to full glory for their big day?
The maples seem especially golden this year. And it has been in this last week that the trees have really started turning colors. I also think every tree/plant that missed its normal pollination schedule is making up for it now. I hope this is an exceptional year and not a trend for me. Something is giving me an allergy-like reaction. Really hard to stay out of it when the days turn nice and sunny. 
Yesterday, we found these signs of another cold front that moved through the pumpkin patch. It felt like it would be another cold evening, so we put the full cover on the cloche to protect the patty pan squash. Just in case, we also picked some of the baby squash for dinner and many tomatoes.
Tonight, an actual frost advisory has been given... but back to a nice 60 degree day tomorrow.
We keep having spurts of cold weather and then warm weather. After this summer, the plants aren't sure if it is spring or fall. They just know they must do it quickly, whatever it is. The lavender is on its third (but light) blooming this year. 
Here is the garden in the last weekend of Sept. Lots of herb seed heads and the last of the flowers. The first weekend of October has brought the rain.
At least Petunia (the snake) doesn't climb up in the flowers and dare you to pick them. But, then, that may be why the spiders do climb up in the flowers.
I started some broccoli, lettuce and chard to see if we might eat into the fall. Unfortunately for the broccoli, the days may become too short to make it to harvest. This one is happily growing under the window frame cloche, along with lettuce and chard (which, of course, we can eat quite young).
So, as an experiment, some seedlings are out in the open, some are under the window cloche and some under the partially covered cloche (only partially covered to prevent scorching on the beautiful fall days like today). In spite of my coffee ground distraction method, the slugs have found several of the broccoli seedlings.
