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It’s now actually starting to seem a little more like fall and less like summer.  Still plenty of bloom time left, though. Fall always seems like black-eyed Susan time to me.  Maybe because they bloom for so long and are still around after other stuff starts to fade.  This is called Tiger’s Eye.

 

 

 

There are all these fancy names for the varieties and they mostly look the same to me.  🙂

Couple of macro shots.  This is a dahlia.

 

Fairy impatien:

I dug up all the hostas on the side of the house.  I kept 2, which I put in the shade bed.  That uncovered this yard ornament that I kind of forgot about:

The next pictures are all with the 70×300 zoom lens. This is playing with the focal point. I took a few shots focusing on the front or rear flower.

 

I have been using a small f-stop, which makes the background blurry, which I think is pretty cool.

My delphiniums are blooming again.  They are much shorter with this flush of blooms:

One of my coral bells:

I do leave those plant ID markers in the ground with all my plants. That way come spring after the snow has  melted and the ground is totally dead, I know where stuff is supposed to come up.

Now for some fauna.  John and I were having lunch outside and it was a complete menagerie in the back yard.

Nuthatch:

Nuthatches are such funny birds.  This is a typical pose for them with the neck at an L angle. It looks so uncomfortable!

Male cardinal.

 

And I finally got some shots of the hummingbird.  This is a tricky little bugger!

 

I will work on some overview shots this week of the garden instead of the closeups.  

I have some fall plants arriving this weekend!  Gotta do some planting.  Looks like Saturday morning/early afternoon for riding will be the only good weather.  Not sure where we are going yet, probably back down to Saratoga.  On a good note, the alligator trunk will be going to its new home this weekend!