maple tree

This magnificent old maple tree has died. I wasn't aware until I got a notice from the borough. I think back to last summer and that one morning with the red-headed woodpecker ... first time I'd seen one in that tree ... now I realize what it meant.

windflower

A hearty (and yet dainty) perennial

autumn hearts

Lavender Mist, Jackson Pollack (1950)

Redbud (Cercis canadensis) (2008)

The trees with their autumn leaves are the stars of the garden now. Nothing for me to do but plant spring bulbs beneath them.

saffron beauty

Autumn flowering Crocus speciosus. I planted these bulbs 10 years ago. And each year I am enchanted. So beautiful, so sasha.

"[C. speciosus] is infinitely worth growing, all its ways are seemly, all its forms lovely." - Louise Beebe Wilder, Adventures with Hardy Bulbs (1936)

"... the first autumnal [crocus] to flower, and ... always startling when it comes bubbling through the earth, innocent of leaves, usually after a warm rain in late September." -LBW

indian summer

Hydrangea macrophylla Jogasaki - still the most beautiful hydrangea in my garden. In July the color was ethereal- the blue of a reflecting pond. In October, the color is concentrated and sweet - like the juice of ripened berries.