Some random fall beauty

I was in the yard yesterday looking for small projects (in between larger projects inside the house) and realized that it's been a while since I just walked around observing and taking photos.

So that's what I did. The weather was beautiful -- around 75ºF (24ºC) -- and there was still plenty to enjoy during these last few days before the colder weather moved in.

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The bald cypress is completing its drought-induced early color change, with its reddish-brown hues brightening up this corner of the yard:

The ground-cover bamboo underneath it is not quite as vibrant as it was early in the year, but still wonderful:

The Salvia leucantha's purple fuzziness is late this year, but welcome nonetheless:

Bamboo and castor bean leaf shadows on an elephant ear. I'm going to be doing a lot of work with elephant ears soon:

Verbena bonariensis, apparently now a permanent part of my garden even though I haven't planted it for two or more years. No powdery mildew issues with it this year, which is a first (and why I don't plant it anymore):

Did I mention that I grow bamboo?

Not specifically fall-related, but the birds just won't eat this seed. I can't figure out if they don't like the feeder itself, or maybe its location. It's frustrating.

Smartweed (I think). It's everywhere!

Although not everywhere (just in the three places I planted it) the Malabar spinach vines have produced thousands of black berries, each containing one seed:

One of the things I love most about this time of year is the sound. Crickets, grasshoppers, and katydids using the last few warm days to find a mate, their buzzing calls make the garden more alive:

The scarlet sage (Salvia coccinea). Great drifts of late-season color, in a shade of red that is very difficult for digital cameras to capture in my experience:

There was probably much, much more to see out here, but as I said I was between inside projects and they weren't going to get done themselves, so I had to put down the camera and get back to them.

More soon.

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