Last Days of Summer at the 45th Parallel

Here at the 45th parallel, summer ends pretty early.  The day lilies and sunflowers have pretty much ended their summer bloom, and we are being treated to a good mushroom season.  It is now a season of changing leaves, heavy morning dew, extravagant spider webs, fog and fading vegetation and one of my favorite seasons.

smiling birdhouses

family in fog

johnny jump ups one of the first and last flowers of the season

spectacular mushroom "flower"

mushroom and lichen.  Mushrooms have an amazing diversity of color and shape

my red and yellow sunflowers against our red barn.  I try to grow these every year, but these year only a few germinated, but the ones that did provided spectacular blooms.

a new variety of echevaria with pretty flowers captured here  

My smokebush!

smokebush and sunflower

spider web

spider web...great design!

When the spectacle of Fall is nearly over, we begin our trek south and west to Arizona stopping briefly in Wilmington, NC so Michael can teach a workshop, in Georgia so Michael can celebrate a decade birthday with his family, then briefly to NM and then on to AZ where Michael begins the Sedona Plein Air Festival less than 24 hours after we arrive.  It will be a very busy October!

Amazing Arizona

Most people think Arizona is hot and dry and it is in some places, but it has amazing diversity.  This week we got around 3 inches of rain and now we have below freezing temperatures in the mornings.  However, the daytime temperatures are IDEAL!  Along Oak Creek I found the most amazingly large fungi mass.  The sunglasses in the kaleidoscopes are put there to give a sense of scale!  And yes we have grass here also...

original photo is almost as impressive!

Fungi Mass along Oak Creek in Cornville, AZ

Come and visit us this winter.  Take a http://paintsedona.com/ Plein Air Painting Workshop!

A Few More Mushrooms

The first frost has not yet arrived, but it is coming soon.  The air is cooler and since we have gotten over 7 inches of rain in the past few weeks, the mushrooms are having one of their best displays in years!  One of the best places to view the mushrooms is in Herring Cove Provincial Park on the trail from the campground to the beach.

Mushrooms and More Mushrooms

After over 5 inches of rain this week, the mushrooms have exploded.  I took lots of pictures this week, but one particular picture led to a series of kaleidoscopes.  I actually only used the top one, but the hidden colors were amazing.  You will be seeing mushroom kaleidoscopes for a few more weeks as I explore all these interesting shapes!

mushroom with green center

mushroom with blue center

mushroom with cream center and brown star

mushroom with brown center