Beloved October

Just how many of us are swooning over the beauty of October? I am such a fan! I know I'm not alone in this, there are many more like me, rhapsodizing over each autumn leaf. With all that being said, the fall colors are really late this year, just now getting started. I've been quite impatient waiting for the show. I even started making my rounds at the local parks, hoping to catch some early peeks. Then I drove up to Michigan for my annual autumn tour. Well, they were behind in fall colors too, but still had plenty to please. Once I got back home, the colors had finally started kicking it up a notch. You wouldn't even believe how much time I spend in October, driving around looking for fall foliage treasures. 

As for my garden, October is generally a month of decline. We haven't actually had a frost yet, which is unusual. But the shorter days and cooler weather is telling plants that they should think about shutting down. Honestly, I'm surprised at how much flower color actually does remain, although it's mostly from the annuals, trying to go out with a bang. Keep in mind, some of these photos were taken in early October, and might not look as good now. But some actually do still look good.  

I wanted to talk about this photo specifically, because there are a couple of highly notable plants included. See that purple spiky plant on the ground? That's Mexican Bush Sage, an annual here in Ohio. When I buy it in early May, it's much smaller, but does often have a few small blossoms. But I plant it here, in full sun, and all summer it just blends into the background in shades of green. When mid September comes, it begins to put out a fresh batch of these delightful purple fuzzy blooms. For the next month of so, it puts on quite a show, and is well worth the wait. I think you should get one for yourself next year! On the trellis, you'll see unique seed heads, and you might recognize them as a clematis. But it's not your usual clematis, this is Duchess of Albany, which blooms with pink bells instead of the flat flowers you normally associate with clematis. It was gorgeous in bloom earlier in the summer. But once it was done blooming, the seed heads began putting on their own show! Those little sputnik puffs have remained beautiful for months now, and I'm starting to like them even better than the flowers itself. I think you need one of these too! 

When I scrolled through my October photos, I noticed an abundance of orange and peach flowers. My theme color this year was salmon, and if salmon wasn't available, I substituted orange. It's been fun and colorful, but I won't repeat it as my main color. It clashed too much with the pink tones in the perennials. However, I will *always* use Oklahoma salmon zinnias, they're my favorite. 

Monarch season has finally come to an end here in central Ohio. Last month I said that I had found a very late batch of eggs, but I brought them inside and raised them anyway. For the most part, they turned into butterflies, then took off and headed south. But the last few met with chilly weather, and it was difficult to convince them to leave. Not to mention, some of them were less than healthy. I had two with faulty wings, and assumed they wouldn't make it. But they had other ideas, and were determined to live free. I don't really want to know if something got to them, or if they were only able to travel a short ways from here. All I know is they lived free. I released 67 in total, 41 males and 26 females. I'll surely miss them over the winter, and already looking forward to next year. 

I mentioned my habit of going from park to park to see fall surprises, so here are some of the highlights of that. One day, I even dragged hubs along so we could explore Columbus itself. I'll try to caption each one, so you can see where I was. 

Columbus Ohio skyline

Franklin Park Conservatory

Franklin Park Conservatory

Chestnut Ridge

Battelle Darby Creek park

Battelle Darby Creek park

Iconic deer statue in Columbus

Blendon Woods

Blendon Woods

Shrock Lake

Blacklick Woods

Chestnut Ridge

Chestnut Ridge

Chestnut Ridge

Chestnut Ridge

Chestnut Ridge

But the highlight of October is my anual autumn tour of SW Michigan. I still have family and friends there, plus I go to capture some pretty spots in photos. Like I said, even their fall color display was behind. But I found some in my usual haunts. The highlight is being at the beach though, no matter what season I am there. Perhaps that seems strange to you, to go to the beach when the weather is cool and windy. Well, that's my favorite kind of beach weather, really! There's just something exhilerating about the crashing waves. And it can make for great photos too. Just be sure to bundle up to enjoy it. 

St. Joseph Michigan

North Lake Grand Mere

Hess Lake Baroda

Hess Lake Baroda

North Lake Grand Mere

North Lake Grand Mere

Glenlord Beach

Warren Dunes State Park

St. Joseph Tiscornia Park

Galien River Overlook, New Buffalo

New Buffalo

Jean Klock park

Tiscornia Park

St. Joseph lighthouse

St. Joseph Overlook park

I don't do much crafting in summer, but it's getting cooler, and that means getting out the craft supplies again. I like to paint rocks and leave them in parks for strangers to find, so I made sure to finish a batch before my trip to Michigan. The fall basket was a project for the garden club. They brought in old baskets, pine cones and dried flowers, and we all had fun creating with it. Most people did Christmas baskets, but not me. I had to honor fall instead, of course.

There have been a lot of cloudy days lately, so most of my home garden sunsets are from the first half of October. Even at the beach, I didn't see much sunset action. I guess it's just that time of year. 

Thank you for stopping by my blog, as I rave over autumn. Actually, thanks for any time that you stop by here to visit. I so appreciate it, especially when you leave comments. Come back again next month! Since the fall colors have been so slow, I predict my November post will be a delayed tribute to autumn.