So far this year, it has been a very mild autumn here in Manhattan, Kansas, allowing for an extended period of color in the garden. The weather, the last few days, has been grey and damp, with rain on and off. So the colors are really showing up in bright contrast to the skies. Here are a few pictures that I took this morning. I hope that you enjoy them!
Wishing you a beautiful day!
We had a brief downpour yesterday morning and I just couldn’t resist getting some garden photos as soon as the rain stopped. This is one of my favorites. It is of a pale pink lily, stained by the pollen splattered on its petals.
Have a beautiful weekend!
It was a beautiful sunrise this morning. So during breakfast, I took a minute to dash to the top of our fire escape to grab a few photos. This was one of my favorites. I hope that you are having a lovely day!
This has been a wonderful year for autumn foliage in Manhattan, Kansas. The wind was gusting this morning, so I decided that I had better get some pictures before all the leaves come down. Here is a photo that I took looking up into one of the maple trees in our neighborhood. The colors looked especially vivid against the grey fall sky. Have a lovely day!
For today’s prompt, participants are invited to post a story or image that doesn’t fit with the usual theme of their blogs. For mine, I am sharing one of my digital abstracts. I call this “The Rush.”
Livin’ Easy is a floribunda rose that I planted last year; so this is its second season in my garden. Even though it has only a light fragrance, I am fond of this rose because it is vibrant and cheerful – and, of course, a pleasure to photograph. Its small, bright coral buds brushed with gold at the base, open to fluffy many-petaled roses which soften in color to a soft apricot as the 4-inch blooms fade.
Wishing you an easy and pleasant day …
For a while, I have been wanting a beautiful urn for the back garden. Even mature gardens are still always a work in progress. I am delighted to have found this lions’ heads piece which coordinates with our fountain in the front yard. I chose to plant it with bright coral pelargoniums to add cheerful color contrast to the oregano around its base.
Late Autumn – Early Winter on the Konza Prairie
For this week’s photography challenge, I headed out to the Konza Prairie after breakfast. I was captivated by this one ashen white tree. Notice also the moss colored tree just in front and to the right of it. Upon close inspection, there really were so many subtle colors to be seen.
The evergreens covered with berries reminded me of Christmas.
It was a heavy sky, but just a little too warm to snow. All that fell were a few sprinkles of cold rain.
Quite a few trees were covered with moss. It made them look bundled up for the cold.
This pair of trees seemed ready for winter to be over and it has hardly begun.
What a pleasant surprise every now and then to run into some brightly-colored berries.
But then I would look at the woods, so ominous-looking, and I was happy to head home for a cup of hot tea.
This is a watercolor that I painted a few years ago. It is an abstract landscape called Prairie, Bright. I gave it to my friend Carolyn, as a thank you for her help in printing my first cookbook. I used to do watercolor, watercolor-and-ink, and watercolor mixed media paintings – that is until I took up food photography for the book. Since then, whenever I have ten minutes to spare, I am off photographing something or another. One of these days, I’ll get back to painting. I had thought about entering this image into the Weekly Photography Challenge since the theme this week is to take a picture of something you have created. The painting itself, though, is more interesting than the photo of it. So, the challenge is still on. Will I be able to come up with an idea and an image?
A Taste of Morning 