Beauty from the Biltmore House and Gardens

 I hope you are not getting tired of my photos from Biltmore House and Gardens in Asheville, NC.  This will be my 18th post from there...  I'm not obsessed,  am I?  ha ha ....  IF you happen to miss any of the other 17 posts,  you can go to my sidebar,  scroll down to Labels, and click on Biltmore.  It is truly an awesome place!  This trip was on August 5, my birthday!
 
Today I'm sharing a few more pictures with you.   Above are a couple of gorgeous Crepe Myrtles in bloom.   Below are more.  Enlarge the photos for larger pictures.

One of the adorable statues at the Italian Gardens;  I first thought he was holding an ice cream cone.  Don't think so!!!!! ha

One of the sidewalks in the Biltmore Gardens;  Love seeing the Grape Vines;

The Koi in the Italian Water Gardens;  I was looking straight down into the water --and loved getting the clouds in the sky as a reflection!

Remember when I showed a picture of this Chenille plant  around Christmas time --from inside the Conservatory?  WELL---now they have been transplanted outside.  Those little fuzzy worms do get long,  don't they?

I've talked alot about the Conservatory but have never shown you its picture.  Well--here it is--and let me tell you that there are some gorgeous tropical plants inside there,  including Orchids.

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On another note,  several of you have complained about having to scroll all of the way down through my comments to get to the "Leave Comment" form.  WELL--my advice is:  when you bring up a blog,  click on the blog only (Like THIS) instead of the post (This one )....   If you pull up the blog,  the comments won't come up.  Then just click on the comment form.  Much EASIER I think!!!!!   Use the Blogger Draftboard because it doesn't work if you use the Google Reader.   Just my thoughts for today! ha

Hope you enjoyed my photos from Biltmore.

Have a wonderful day.  We are still getting some drizzly rain... We're up to about 6 inches now....But--it's a slow rain ---so there's no flooding!  Thanks be to God.

Hugs,
Betsy

Late Summer Color in our Yard--2011

Thanks be to God for bringing us some much-needed rain this week.  Tropical Storm Lee came our way!!!!  Yeah Rah!!!!  We have had a very very dry couple of months (with no rain since the end of June),  but believe it or not,  we still have a few things blooming in our yard.

However,  if you could see the yard,  you would think that it's the middle of October --with one exception:  the extreme heat we had recently.  Because of the drought,  the leaves on the big shade trees have turned brown and are falling.. Our ground is covered with them!!!!  Crazy ---since it is only September. BUT---lucky for us---that extreme heat has now gone (as of this week) --and I hope it stays away until next Summer.  I am ready for some Fall temperatures....

Today I'll share some of the blooms in our yard now  (with the exception of our gorgeous Roses which I talked about last week).  We have REBLOOMING IRISES ---and have enjoyed them so much, especially this time of year. 

This Iris and the one above is named CANTINA.

This little beauty is one of our CLEMATIS blooms.   They are mostly gone now--but we enjoyed quite a few of them this summer.

I absolutely love our SEMPERVIVUM (Semps---called Hens and Chicks), and we have them in various places all over the yard.  George got a good macro of this bloom.

Here's an even closer shot of one of the Semp blooms.  Isn't it just gorgeous?

This gorgeous Iris is named CLARENCE.   It's so much fun to see these blooming this time of year.

I love the colors in this Iris... Her name is BLATANT.   Thanks to George for working hard to keep all of these little beauties alive in this summer heat.  We both keep things watered --as much as possible!

Hope you have a wonderful day!!!!!  AND---thanks be to God for the rain and milder temperatures...  We have had 5+ inches of rain so far with more to come!!!!  But--some areas around us are having much flooding...We are grateful for the rain --but I hate to hear about the flooding.

The other good news is that it is MUCH cooler here now.  It was so damp and cool last night (in the 50's) that we had a fire in the fireplace... I LOVED it!!!!!

Hugs,
Betsy