Leaves and a Gnome

Because of our warm early spring and then our two month summer drought, many of the plants and trees have been a bit 'off' this year.  Leaves have been falling a bit here and there for quite some time now, but in the last two days I've noticed a significant increase.  In fact, yesterday I was lucky enough to get a 2 hour nap in on my half day off, and from just before my nap and then after my nap there was a very noticeable increase in the amount of leaves on the lawn.  On my drive home today I went through neighborhoods where the sidewalk was completely covered for stretches, gutters and lawns were full.

Here at home, most of the leaves you see are not from our tree, which is still mostly green.  Some trees we can see from our back yard are bare, some are yellow, and there is still some green among them.  There doesn't seem to be a lot of red, but I had heard that might be the case this year because of the Summer drought.

I have started cutting some plants down, the 3 peony bushes around the yard and the irises seen in the lower part of the picture above.  If you look hard at the top you can see our little gnome that used to be poking out from between the hostas, or you can look at the close up posted below.  The hostas will have to be mowed down in the next few weeks, latest.  I got this gnome for Kate a few months ago because, well, because she said we needed one.  Now that we have him, I would agree.