Wow, Poco, there is a great deal of powerful symbolism in those thistles.  I love the contrast with the rich greens all around them.

catwoods, I hope you feel better soon.

Loved the pics, Poco.  Please keep them coming.  Today is the first cooler day that makes it feel like autumn is headed our way.  It takes awhile before you can really see any foilage changes here.  Usually it goes from green to brown and not much else in between so I love seeing the changes that are going on in other areas.  I truly miss it.

Hope you feel better and more energized soon, catwoods.  Maybe the cooler weather will help.

Catwoods, I would love the katydids to quiet down a tad.  They have been going nuts here.  I finally got to open up all the windows and enjoy temps in the low 80s during the day and 60s during the night for the past two days.  Unfortunately, the katydids are driving me nuts right now.  I'm about ready to shut the windows just to get some peace and quiet from them.  By the end of the week, we'll be back to our usual 90 degree weather.  Yuck!  I love autumn and am ready for it to stay.

  I actually enjoy the katydids, I just had to learn to love 'em I guess, they raise a clatter here all night long every summer. You can't talk to anyone outside at night.

Cicadas are still lingering here, too. I'd love to have singing toads, but we don't see toads around anymore.....sad the way something is changing the planet's fauna.

I'm ready for fall but if it gets really cold I will moan and groan.

So where did the other 3 feet of cable go, Carol?  I wonder if Jack and Lucy have stashed it someplace...

One of my favorite fall sights is the bright red-orange berries on my mountain ash tree:



Here is a view of more of the tree. It is about 45 feet tall.



Ordinarily, the leaves on this tree would not be so sparse already.  This is one of the trees that was targeted by the Japanese beetle invasion we had earlier this summer, so quite a few of the leaves are gone.

The mountain ash tree, also known as rowan, is my very favorite tree.  I fell in love with these on a trip to Agawa Canyon in Canada years ago.  Ever since then, I have had one wherever I live.

The rowan is a very powerful tree in the mythology of the British Isles.  It was seen as having magical properties, and as a protection against malevolent beings, especially against dark witchcraft.  Druids' staves and magic wands were often made of rowan wood.

Birds love these berries when they are fully ripe.  Only a few last into the winter because, at my house at least, hordes of hungry migrating robins and cedar waxwings will descend and eat almost every berry.  I always hope to be home when it happens, because it is an amazing (and noisy!) sight.

And finally, a few fall flowers from my garden.  This is an odd little allium that is a fall bloomer.  It spreads like crazy.



These flowers were swarming with bumblebees, but the bees would not hold still long enough for me to get a good picture.  However, if you look just above and to the left of center in the middle flower, you can see a bee behind one of the florets.  Just her antenna and stinger are visible.

And what would fall flowers be without mums?



These are in a planter on my deck.

catbird and pygmypets,
     Beautiful pictures! 

Poco, I would love to give you some sun, it's back in the 90's here.  So much for our break.  Still haven't seen any rain, not even a hurricane could give us some much need showers

I, too, have been enjoying the beautiful pictures and stories, thank you so much for sharing everyone.  Other than the squirrels scrambling all over the place storing up their pecans, about the only other thing I have noticed is an increase in birds on my feeders.

I have one Cardinal family that I have watched all year that routinely comes to the feeder about an hour before dusk.  There is one that I have watched since it was a fledgling and she is now a beautiful full grown female Cardinal.  They always stay away until the mourning doves have left for the night.  I have tried to get pictures, but each time I come out, they leave and no matter how long I sit and quietly wait, they will out wait me until I go inside.  There's the three of them,  mama, daddy and the now fullgrown female baby.  I hope she, too, has a family and brings them around the my feeders next year.  I also have several birdhouses that I usually have multiple families have babies in the spring.  I do enjoy that they come around, and I KNOW my kitties love watching them from the sunroom.  I have several perches around the room and they will sit around and chatter at the birds when they come in to feed.