Fall in the Air

The mums are blooming all over the yard. We planted these the very first year we moved to the Valley. They are by far the bushiest and most healthy. 

 I have been creating quite a bit lately with gemstone nuggets. I took off my necklace just to see how it would   look against the gravels. The dragonfly was from an artist friend, Gena from France. The necklace is made of  moonstone and amythest stones. The moonstone seems to glow against the grey of the gravel.

 This was the only butterfly that I could have reached out and touched. Did not seem to be in the least bothered with me and the camera.

 Japanese anomoe cascading in near the door of the studio. Those are bits of leaves laying in front of the door. Lots more of those to come as the days began to get cooler.

The swallowtail butterflies enjoy the butterfly bushes in front of the house. The house in the photo is the house across the road.  The trees are just as tall as the ones in our yard and lots of them as well. This is a very quiet  mountain country road that dead ends just a bit beyond our house.

August in the Mountains

 Early morning photograph of the mountains from the upper deck. If you peep ever so carefully in the middle of the photo, you can see the mountains as lush and green as the trees.

 After finishing some photo pages for Ray, I took the camera outside to walk around the yard. Amazingly, this is a jasmine blooming. I found it on clearance last year. It wintered over in the house, where it bloomed off and on during the winter. Now it is blooming every day and the scent is heavenly.

 I took several packets of sunflowers into the yard awhile ago. This is the lone sunflower that is reaching up to the sun. The chipmunks while eating sunflowers left several behind. They were about the size of a chipmunk and have already bloomed. The leaves of this flower are simply large hearts unfolding.

 A sculpture in the woods on the side yard was a incredible find at the Farmer's Market in Asheville last August. If you were to hit the bottom middle of the sculpture, it would sound like a gong.

 At the base of the steps is the foundation for the greenhouse, which is completely hidden by flowers and herbs. The sun coming though the butterfly bush reminded me of lace. The angel trumpet vine is tightly closed this morning. Tomorrow, she will have many lovely white blossoms.

 The first signs of the changing of the leaves is always a reminder that fall is coming in all her glory.

Wondering what kind of butterfly is resting on the butterfly bush...This is a volunteer butterfly bush. We  have  a few of these popping up in the yard. While the butterfly rests, I went into the studio to make washi tape for a swap going on at 14 Secrets a Yahoo art group. Inspiration found me. Washi tape is created and resting in a stamped envelope to take to the post office. When I send art mail, I tend to mark art mail fragile as I often include a little treat for the hostess of the art swap.