mums!

Wordless/Wordy Wednesday--where I linked up:

Create With Joy (Kitty photo bomber!)

A Southern Daydreamer  (time for the fair!)

ABC Wednesday This week's challenge is the  letter N.  (stretching just a little!) N is for Nature.




photo by me  © 2016  all rights reserved

nature wandering

On a beautiful Fall day, my husband and I meandered around the Cincinnati Nature Center.  We inhaled October's loveliness and delighted in its abundant gifts.   

Here are a few snippets from that hike.

                                              

"I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers."

~ L M Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables

LINK:

Cincinnati Nature Center

photos by me © 2016   all rights reserved

October memories

October... 

with its rich azure skies

clouds of marshmallow fluff

leaves of brilliant hues

October...

when foliage sheds flawless exteriors

critters munch and crunch 

harvest is plentiful

October...

filled with pumpkin-y decor

bright faces appearing at the door

splendor galore!

Autumn is giving lavish birth
beguiling me with its wild mirth!

My Blogging Business Artisan team on etsy hosts a new Challenge every month.  The purpose is to encourage us to explore our creativity, to stretch our imaginations.
Pam of Magdalene Knits gave us the following Challenge for the month of October:

"There are so many delightful and frightful topics for October.  A time when there is a change in the air, fresh pumpkins, donuts, apple picking, pumpkin patches, and a time of 'bewitching!'  I have so many wonderful memories of these.  Share your October memories."

QUESTION:  What inspires you to create?

photos by me © 2009-16  all rights reserved

Splendid Autumn

I'm so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers.

~L. M. Montgomery

Listen!  The wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves,

We have had our summer evenings, now for October eves!

~ Humbert Wolfe

Delicious autumn!  My very soul is wedded to it and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.

~ George Eliot

I'm still getting yummy produce from my garden.

a walk in the woods of North Carolina

a luscious Autumn wedding cake

Autumn is a swirl of colors and scents, awakening the senses to the earthiness of the world and the possibilities of delights. Summer lingers yet the air hints of chill to come.

This post is for the Blogging Business Artisans Team Challenge for the month of October.  Judy of Mister Pen Quin  (blog--This Creative Journey) states:
Fall is in full swing by the time October rolls around.  Create something that reminds you of Fall through your senses--visually by smell or by touch.  If you prefer, write a post that celebrates the sensory appeal of autumn.

photos by me © 2013-2015  all rights reserved

xanthophyll

...a yellow carotenoid plant pigment that causes the autumn color of leaves

This color is masked by chlorophyll in the summer.  Xanthophylls aid in the absorption of light by capturing specific wavelengths and rapidly transferring this energy to chlorophyll. 

This photo was taken about two weeks ago.  Now most of the leaves have fallen off the trees.  There are still some beautiful red leaved maples.  The pear trees have only just begun to turn red.

Alphabe-Thursday, hosted by Ms Jenny, is so much fun!  This week our letter is  "X."  Come visit others' submissions HERE  and join in the fun!  

iPhone photo by me  © 2014   all rights reserved 

View

I've been so captivated by the view outside my home office window the past couple days.  The brilliant sunlit leaves light up the room with a warm yellow-orangish glow.

The trees are gorgeous this year!  I love watching how the light moves through the leaves as the day wears on and the sun drops ever lower and then fades away.

at ground level here.  On the left you can see a bit of deck and under that the pink hydrangea (that I tried to change to blue with no success so far).

looking out the window again.  In the lower middle of this photo you can see the beginning of a path into the woods.  Along the bottom on the right is the deck railing with tomato plants reaching for the last little bit of sunlight.  (Yes, still getting a few small tomatoes!  I won't take out the plants till the very last second.)

 

Birds seem to fill the air at this time of year.

The clouds provide an everchanging panoply of pageantry as well.

I'm linking up with my favorite teacher, Ms Jenny Matlock, as we work our way through the alphabet.  Please do go visit the other students, for you never know what gems you may find--humor, poignancy, information, visions of far away places, stuff you've never even dreamed of!  Check it out HERE.  You may even wish to join in yourself!  This week our letter is "V."  

I'm also linking up with Skywatch Friday hosted by Wren, fishing guy, Sylvia, Klaus, and Sandy.  Come join us in this awesome meme, link up, and meet folks from all over the globe. 

photos by me © 2012 all rights reserved

Happy Thanksgiving!

Here's to you, my dear blog readers!  Have a blessed and wonderful Thanksgiving!

delicious Autumn

Autumn means gloriously Fall-colored produce--orange, gold, cinnamon, burgundy, deep purple, scarlet.  These were recently bought at Finn Meadows Farm, a local organic farm owned by my friends.  I belong to a vegetable CSA-- Community Supported Agriculture.  I love the way they run the CSA because I get to choose what I want.

Ѽ orangey-beige squash and other squashes including 2 kinds of pumpkin, a red/green pepper and a deep purple one (green inside), 3 colors of carrots (burgundy ones are orange on the insides), a long pink and white radish, and a deep red beet Ѽ
visually pretty and yummy, too! 

It's Fall Break over at Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday!  "For this week our Fall break theme is Anything Autumn. Your post can be about anything related to Autumn in your own life... Halloween, pictures, stories, recipes...whatever strikes your fancy."
Come and join in the fun!  See more entries HERE.  You will be charmed and even enlightened in a delightful way!  Our generous Ms. Jenny is having a giveaway, too!  yipee! 
link to Finn Meadows Farm

photo by me © 2011

simple autumn beauty

grasses sway in breeze

leaves crumble into color

vibrant berries boast

It's Fall Break over at Jenny Matlock's Alphabe-Thursday!  The theme is Autumn Colors.  Come and join in the fun!  Your post can have anything to do with Autumn color.  Pictures, poems, stories, recipes...whatever strikes your fancy.    See more entries HERE.  You will be charmed and even enlightened in a delightful way!  There's even a giveaway!

I'm also linking up with SkyWatch Friday. Come join this awesome meme SkyWatch Friday and link up!  SkyWatch Friday is hosted by Wren, fishing guy, Sylvia, Klaus, and Sandy.

PS:  if you're wondering what the heck my "abstract" and "round" photos are, they are revealed HERE!

PSS:  My friend Linda is having a giveaway on her blog!  Come see HERE!

photos by me ©  2009  poem by me ©  2011
apron photo © by Linda Pruitt 2011

Azure

Listen!  the wind is rising, and the air is wild with leaves,

We have had our summer evenings, now for October eves!

~ Humbert Wolfe

 There is a harmony

In autumn, and a lustre in its sky...

~ Percy Bysshe Shelley  

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.

~ George Eliot

For man, autumn is a time of harvest, of gathering together. For nature, it is a time of sowing, of scattering abroad. ~Edwin Way Teale

Ho! for the leaves that eddy down, 

Crumpled yellow and withered brown, 

Hither and yonder and up the street 

 And trampled under the passing feet; 

Swirling, billowing, drifting by, 

With a whisper soft and a rustling sigh....

~ Grace Strickler Dawson

Every leaf speaks bliss to me,

Fluttering from the autumn tree.

~ Emily Bronte

photo #1 my backyard

photo #2 crabapple loaded with berries

photo #3 birch

photo #4 spiderweb in the hawthorne

photo #5 my backyard

This post is for SkyWatch Friday hosted by Wren, fishing guy, Sylvia, Klaus, and Sandy.  Come join us in this awesome meme, link up, and meet folks from all over the globe. 

This post is also for the etsy bloggers' team carnival.   Linda of Spotted Cow Soaps is the host and will post all the submissions on her blog on Monday, October 11 HERE.  For this carnival, Linda asks us to "Show us some awesome photos of autumn in and around where you live."

photos by me © 2010 (taken today in my yard)