More Fall Color

I'm trying to cultivate an appreciation for the autumn season as it is here, now...letting go of the summer that in many ways never was...bracing for the winter ahead.

I am very much a fall color person--all about the yellows and oranges (but also those bright summery greens, and also reds, blues, purples...OK I'm just a color person).

I love these sunflowers (?) that have sprung up randomly around our yard. Maybe from wayward birdseed?





















And these calendula are the only success in my herb garden this year (unless you count the mammoth catnip plant I keep trying to cut back). I probably will not turn them into infusions or salves as I once would have, but I love the colors and they're so easy to grow (and even self-seed), and they last through the mild frosts right up to the brutal end.

I moved my yellow and orange vases from my spring/summer arrangement (where they were joined by a third, turquoise vase) on the "mantle" (a.k.a. top row of rough, bare brick that no one--ahem--has bothered to finish off in any kind of attractive or functional manner whatsoever) to the kitchen windowsill, to join the parsley, which is finally starting to produce after an entire spring and summer. These colors are so versatile!

And I'm still loving my new curtains, which feel very seasonally appropriate (despite orchids growing in the tropics)...orange and yellow and dark brown. Hopefully they will be equally uplifting (and equal to insulating the windows) through the winter.