Sunday, September 25, 2016

Fall in the Garden

There are lots of signs of fall around, and I'll have a number of them over the next week or two.  It's particularly the colder mornings, even though we're still having beautiful days.  With the moderate temperatures they're great days for working, and there seems to be a long list of things for me to work on!

The Japanese Anemone is the last pretty flower to bloom in the garden, with its round ball-shaped flower buds.  I always think it looks so delicate for a season that's pretty tough.

The Elephant Ears (named for its big leaves), one of the Ligularias, provides a bright spash of orangey-yellow for quite a few weeks at this time of year.  Unfortunately it spreads invasively and relentlessly; I took a number out this spring, and will do so again next year (and probably every year thereafter).

But it's got one of the most interesting assortments of pistils and stamens in the flower centre.  One of my favourite flowers for a close-up.

Speaking of close-ups, lots of Honey Bees have been buzzing around the Garlic Chives.  You can't guess how many shots it took to get this relatively clear one.

Along the fencerow, above the Hostas, the leaves of the Ash and Dogwood are starting to deteriorate, even though there isn't much colour yet.

If you can get the leaf to sit still in the sunshine, I always think that an extreme close-up is very interesting with the pattern of leaf cells, each a little factory churning out oxygen.

Wandering down the fencerow, I just happened to spot these clumps of fungi at the base of our old Apple tree.  I sure hope it doesn't mean the old tree is on its way out!

I hate destroying the mushroom to have a close look at the underside, so I left these alone.  And it's not easy to match pictures with all the varieties.  My closest guess is that these may be a version of Dryad's Saddle; if not they're very similar.

Finally figured out how the water was leaking from the waterfall I've been trying to construct.  There's still a lot of work to do, but with that figured out I'm hoping for faster progress in the coming weeks compared to the past 4 years!  And tomorrow we're off on our first little venture in the new-to-us old camping van.  We'll see how it works.

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21 comments:

  1. Love the fall garden flowers.

    Safe travels. Enjoy!

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  2. I love fall, it is my favorite season. I have a long garden to do list and I am distracted by all the fun festivals around here!! I need to get busy as the yard is looking a lil' shabby!! I have not been noticing many mushrooms lately......

    Your images are really pretty, lots of lovely light!!

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  3. Some excellent photography on this post.

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  4. Happy travelling, super close-up or macro, I know how difficult it is to get a bee or insect to be still long enough to get that perfect focus, you did it!!! spring here, and an equally long line of jobs, the firewood last week and this is #1 priority. A massive heap that warms my heart, thanks to some wonderful helpers who felled, cut into rounds, split, and heaved!!!

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  5. More new places to explore and travel photos, have too much fun !

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  6. It's my favorite time of the year. And it is beautiful where you live, too. Those mushrooms are very healthy looking. :-)

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  7. Hello, beautiful flowers and I love the mushroom photos. Great captures. Wishing you safe and happy travels. Happy Monday, enjoy your new week ahead!

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  8. Nice shot of the bee! And looks like you've got lots of nice mushrooms too.

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  9. Lovely photos , oh how I love photographing fungi to all so different looking . It has been raining here most of today the weekend weather was lovely . Hope you enjoy your new camper . Thanks for sharing , Have a good week !

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  10. Excellent bee shot. Love the 'shrooms too.
    MB

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  11. Great pictures. The bee is my favorite today.

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  12. Fantastic photo of the bee!
    Love your other photos, too, especially the mushrooms.

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  13. When I was a kid we had elephant ears plants in the back yard, but I don't ever remember them blooming. You would think I would remember a flower that colourful. - Margy

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  14. What a lovely collection of photographs ... a joy to look at.

    All the best Jan

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  15. A nice set of shots welcoming in the fall season. We saw all kinds of fungus in Algonquin. It annoys me when I see that people have purposely kicked the really pretty ones over. I hope your apple tree stays healthy.

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  16. Excellent shots!

    Fall certainly is settling in.

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  17. These are wonderful shots of the last flowers of the season! The bee is a perfect photo.

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  18. I enjoyed these beautiful photos and closeup shots around your yard. Fall is well underway here and the leaves are changing more every day.

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