before the raking begins..

Of course there will be that first Sunday in November when we tell ourselves that a whole extra hour in the day is great. We will use it to sleep in or put mink oil on our boots. That luxury only lasts one day.  Personally, I would give up an hour of sleep every night if I could have the sun shine until after I finish washing the dinner dishes.  But I will have to wait a while for that. Unless we get a hard freeze, I will spend the next week or two denying autumn and enjoying what I would rather call late-late summer.

Don't get me wrong, I am not a fall grinch.  Once the maples and Chinese pistache trees are engulfed in color, you might just catch me nostalgically mumbling about apple crisps and the smell of pipe smoke at football games...... Until then  here are a few pictures from my home garden of things that look good without a loss of chlorophyll.

the coarse-leafed but beautiful Mexican sunflower

Asteraceaceae oblongifolius 'October Skies'... this clump originally came from the  2005 Pinata Anchor of Hope public art/seedling project