The Engaging Transition Into Fall

The transition from summer to fall in the mountains is something I have never experienced before.  It is different than I would have expected, in that it is not blatantly beautiful and bold. This time of year is somewhat plain, not in a dull way, but one must really look closely to see what nature has to offer.  I am not the only person who has observed this, as I shared in a previous post about it feeling like fall.

Nature seems to be working hard at keeping a hold of "the green" so to speak. I have observed that the wildflowers are small and almost inconspicuous, like nature is trying to hold on with miniscule beacons of pollen and beauty.  Unlike summer, one has to maintain awareness of the flora hiding within the red clay landscape...these are all tiny flowers, growing on stalks with multiple blooms (I zoomed in to the flowers, so you are not seeing the true size).  Small as they may be, they are spectacular!

And I have observed the bees are buzzing about them in what I will describe as bee mania...bees are buzzing around seeming to be desperate for pollen.  Besides going for any flowers they can find, they are coming after any food we have set before us that may be sweet smelling enough to entice them, they are attracted to my body spray (skin so soft oil, actually known as an insect repellent), and when it comes to the flowers, they are appear to be frantically feeding upon their nectar.  I have a short video to share, though now I wish I had a before video so you could see the difference in the bee's behavior...my observation is that the current behavior is much more frantic yet focused, sucking every speckle of nectar they can find and uninterested in moving until they are forced to move on due to lack of nourishment...

Summer is clearly coming to an end, and I am happy for it.  We will continue to build our wood stockpile to carry us through the winter, and look forward to our fall garden harvest!

Thanks for reading my blog, you are the best f/f/r/s/f's, see you tomorrow,
Lise