The colors of nature

A few weekends ago I went on a tour of the studios of local artists when I got the opportunity to speak one on one with several artists and hear how they see their surroundings. Now when I am out and about with my camera I'm trying to make vignettes or look at color combinations

Just look at the wonderful colors combined here with the crepe myrtle in the foreground and the New England asters behind.
Now you get the rich brown shot of color from the deck and the fall colors of the crepe myrtle with a last gasp of an almost lime green basil leaning to the left paired with the darker green of the rosemary to the right while just edging in on the extreme left is the dried lemon grass.


Last night we had a speaker (Ricki Silva) come to our quilt meeting. At one point she had a slide up showing a sunrise and she mentioned looking at that glory of nature and wanting to take her scissors and snip out a piece of that sky color to add into the quilt she was planning.


I can "see" a quilt in this lineup of autumn plants outside a nearby landscaper's storefront.Which plant shall I take the clippers to and add to my fabric stash?

More seasonal color

Over the weekend Fall really lived up to it's name. The big maple tree above this tableau just let go and there is leaf confetti galore.
While taking the dog for a walk this afternoon I spotted this great variety of autumnal colors. I just loved the way those two "volunteer" trees are peeking through the row of green and have put on their brightest color to make sure they are not overlooked.
And lastly, a few of the chrysanthemums in my front garden. A week or so ago I got really aggressive and pulled out/trimmed back a big lot of the very faded (summertime) black eyed susans and now you can have a much better view of the October flowers in this plot.

Ode to the season

I was away all weekend at a quilt retreat. As I drove out on Friday I thought how magnificent the fall colors were on the trees but that since heavy wind and rain was predicted for Saturday I would not likely get any good photos. But when I arrived home late Sunday afternoon I was lucky enough to have a few minutes of good conditions to take these photos. Look how dramatic the viburnum looks just to the right of the sidewalk in the photo above.
This shows the kousa dogwood tree with it's autumn clothes on. Some of the leaves have turned dry at the edges and curled up and I thought it made for a great image.
And here we are looking further down the street. In the foreground are the seed heads from the black eyed susan blooms that I like to leave up for the birds to feast on.

It's a glorious Fall day

A couple of days ago I looked out my window and thought I should take a photo of the very beginnings of the leaf change color on this big maple tree. But then we had a day of high winds and the leaves looked very windblown indeed. But today is a wonderful day so I did get this photo afterall.
When I first looked out the window this morning the back garden seemed alive with birds. Of course the act of getting my camera, raising the window, removing the screen and then snapping the photo chased some of the birds away. But if you look closely here you can see at least three robins. Before I took the photo three starlings had been in this birdbath at the same time (unusual for the birds to share like that) and they had splashed out a lot of water.

The dogwood is also putting on it's Fall clothes.

The big leaf plant in the left foreground is one of my rhubarb plants. I just picked quite a few stalks yesterday so it is a little smaller now than it was.

Final version of the deck refurbishment

As previously mentioned, the deck refurbishment company did return to apply the stain coating. I am slowly putting some items back in place.