It’s nice that the weather has cooled enough to be able to spend much of the day outdoors, when other things don’t interfere. But these pictures are about the edges of the day.
The purple grass in late afternoon. The heads are purple. A splendid mix of color in the leaves, as they age at different times.
The chamisa flowers are so bright that they seem to be catching the sun even though the sun isn’t up over the mountain yet.
‘Tis the season to catch up on weeding. You can see I’ve made some progress around the edges of the plant — or perhaps you can’t since you don’t know what it looked like before — there’s always more to do.
Well, most people call it a weed, but I consider it a wildflower. It’s current popular name is velcro plant; it was formerly called stickleaf. If you pull it up you will find out why. It’s proper name is said to be Mentzelia. This particularly fine specimen is growing at the edge of our pool deck.
What you see is the top half of the high wall that holds up the ground of the house behind us and a very little of the great mound of leaves which supports these feathery spikes of seed. In the mornings small birds land on the seed heads and weigh them down.
The chamisa and the butterfly bush are flaunting their yellow and red, and yes, fighting for space. In the side yard the volunteer autumn sage is blooming again:
Fortunately, it doesn’t mind in the least that I never got around to deadheading the last set of blooms. As the weather cools I hope to give the garden more attention.
It’s the child of the largest grass plant I have, shown here in the background, and much too big for the space. I had to pay someone to take it out. But I didn’t waste the plumes.
An elegant, filmy, look. They lasted several days. I also had some desert globemallow getting out of bounds, so I brought some branches of that in too.
This bouquet was more short-lived, but pleasing while it lasted (I am partial to orange). The globemallow is a short-lived perennial, but it seeds avidly. I have quite a spread of it, third and fourth generation, I think. One of the volunteers decided to lean toward my study window, giving me a bit of bloom to enjoy from my desk.
It is different every day as the individual flowers fade and new ones open. I like it when a little of my garden can come inside for a bit – or at least “lean in.”
One day he or she was in the driveway, so I carried the creature back inside the gate and left him/her by a wall, near green growing things, after I took a few pictures. The markings on the back are lovely, but gave me no clue about the species.
Purple mat is a small flower which, this year, is here, there and everywhere in my yard, after some years of scarcity.
The iris came with the house. That is, a few flat leaves showed up in unexpected places. I’ve transplanted and fed them. They seem to like being against the wall. They take much more work than native flowers, and don’t last as long, but they were an accidental gift, so I keep caring for them.
No, these are not the same poppies I’ve shown before. It’s a good year for them, they keep appearing in new spots.
freethoughtandmetaphor 