Here she comes...the autumn magical fairy

If Jack Frost can make the pumpkins get ripe...he also may influence all the wonderful colors in Autumn. We've passed the equinox back on the 22nd. And I've been looking for colors. But I decided that credit should be due to a magical fairy who might fly about and touch trees with color.

Whoever is doing it, they are early in these parts.

Goldenrod is having a great year, everywhere I went.

Oh, you noticed this isn't goldenrod. I don't know its name however...

The bradford pear is starting to turn, and my car usually is parked a spot away from the one in this photo.

The north side of a kind of maple has these deep red leaves...or maybe I''m wrong about it being a maple.

Bank parking lot in downtown Black Mountain usually has some pretty colors, and one tree is ahead of the other!

I live on the north side of these trees, and I think the colors start on the south side - maybe.

A bit of sunshining through the trees, points out the presence of yellow leaves, which I don't see usually from my window.

The view from my balcony, or living room windows, now shows some mountain blue through the maple trees, which are loosing leaves pretty fast these days!

 

Cycle of green life

Recently I pruned all the house plants.  It felt very hard to cut back little guys who had struggled through the winter in low light and cool rooms, and sometimes only being watered once a week.

Here the gardenia has proved that it was just waiting for its chance to have warmth and good sun, as well as a nice dose of fertilizer, and now regular watering.   I'm hoping I can force it to give me blooms in the next month.  It won't be ready early as February this year, because I held it from full sunlight till just at the end of January.

Do you know what this lovely bud will turn into?

Geranium.  Again, this trick of cutting back, then bringing artificial spring into being is so fun!

 

I'm having a lot of fun with macros these days.  The Kalancho buds are so fascinating.

bare corners

Look quick!

My friend, The Heathen One, worked hard for hours and hours yesterday, and all the leaves are gone, for a minute!

Just had to go out this morning and get some pics for sharing, and documenting that it really did happen!.

Oh yes, see all those leaves still on the Crepe Myrtle in the foreground, and the butterfly bush near the porch!

Though soon all will be grey and brown, the sun is shining and showing a certain bareness around the cottage today.   I'll get used to it, probably, or more leaves will cuddle in the corners again to take the sharp edges off my environment again.

The house plants are doing fine in the "hot box" out on the front porch.  But I do miss having their cheerful green and colors in the house this winter.  Wonder if I can continue to live with them outside all winter.

Finding Fall

Going on the hunt for fall.  Where?  Just my neighborhood.  I didn't go very far, maybe 30 miles round trip.

Not me, Mom... can you see one ear where I've buried my head in a warm sunny spot.

Yeah, a couple of batches of reddish leaves around the Folk Art Center parking lot (Blue Ridge Parkway).

Oaks are stately and have brown leaves.  Leave us alone, they seem to say.

Still haven't identified these pretty bluish grey lovelies.

Lovely path going up into the woods...shall I take it?

Or shall I heed the grey clouds blowing down from the mountains...very cold looking?

Well, a quick walk into the woods, just a ways...

Gusts of wind send these beech leaves (I think) shivering all in one direction.

I am made to feel so small next to the majesty of these tall trunks along the path up the hill.

And I turn back to the road, waiting for another day when there's more colorful foliage.

Parkway pics

The Blue Ridge Parkway is just 9 miles from my home along US 70.  Then it wends its way along the ridgetops overlooking the Swannanoa Valley, in which Black Mountain, my home, is situated to the southeast.  I don't know the name of the valleys to the west or north of the parkway.  Haw Creek is probably one.

I pulled to the side of the road to catch some pics of the only bright color within view.  I wonder what actually is down this closed road.

Wonderful warm sunshine with clouds dancing across the sky.

A few colors among the rocks prove that fall is definitely coming.

You can see the two posts on the far right which used to hold the sign designating this overlook.  I believe it's called View Pinnacle.  The National Parks have not replaced it apparently, but I was glad to see their budget did take care of cleaning up dead-fall of trees, which had been cut and moved aside so the Parkway remained open for traffic.  This is it's big season starting in a week or so.

Why hasn't an animal or bird eaten these berries yet?

Hate the thorns, but it has some pretty colored leaves!